Open: 10am-6pm
Appt required? Optional. Multiple private tasting options by appointment, but also open for walk-ins.
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012 (April 16, 2012 Itinerary)
Directions:
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Tasting:
We stopped at Alpha Omega following our excellent trip to Sullivan, and so the bar had been set high. A like-minded friend from Twitter (@NapaCabulous) had recommended them, and so I figured we’d give it a shot. The property sits on the east side of Hwy 29 and is fronted by a large pond with five spouting fountains. If you’ve driven down Hwy 29, you’ve certainly seen it.
Our host for the day took the standard tasting room schtick to a whole new level. I’ve heard ad nauseum the percentages of blends, source vineyards, and likely food pairings (“this would be a great barbeque wine), and I can only imagine how dull the speech would be after you had repeated it 200 times in a day. I don’t know if our guy was tired at the end of the day and trying to entertain himself, or just completely full of shit, but it was entertaining to watch him try as hard as he did.
We started with a side-by-side pour of their 2011 Unoaked Chardonnay and their 2009 Chardonnay. In reference to the Unoaked Chardonnay, we got the following:
“You could pair this with some fresh Ahi tuna sashimi, perhaps on a cracker with a bit of black and white sesame, a dash of truffle oil, a sliver of avocado and some shaved radish.”
Really? I decided to play with him a bit.
“That’s your recommended food pairing? Could you be more specific?”
“The fish’s name was Bob, and he had a left fin that went a little like that” as he mimicked a crooked, Nemo-like undeveloped fin with a wry smile.
At least he played along, acknowledging on some level he was full of shit.
We moved on to their Sauvignon Blanc and Rose, two decent wines but nothing that was going to find its way into my suitcase. It was around this time that we also started to check out the other activity in the room. With a 6pm closing time, Alpha Omega is one of the few wineries in Napa open past 5pm, and our 4:30 arrival allowed us to see a number of folks who probably didn’t dump as much wine as they should have during the day. Stephanie mentioned the later closing time to our host, and his cool sales veneer cracked a bit when he hinted that the last hour of the day usually produces “…a number of…good stories, to say the least.”
I was most excited to try the two big red wines at Alpha Omega: their Cabernet and their Bordeaux blend, the “Alpha Omega Proprietary Red”. Our host poured us out these beauties, and it was on his description of the Proprietary Red that we hit our ridiculousness peak:
“This is our flagship blend, the Alpha Omega Proprietary Red. The Cabernet is like the skeleton. The Petite Verdot is the muscle, the Malbec the blood, and the Cabernet Franc the intelligence.” I’m making it up a bit, but it was something very similar that spewed from his mouth. I just laughed at him at this point and rolled my eyes.
What about the wine, you ask? It was actually quite good. The whites were better than average, especially the Chardonnay, but at $58/bottle it was pretty severely overpriced. The theme continued with the reds – both the Cabernet and especially the Proprietary Red were quite good, but at $88 and $90 respectively, the wines didn’t live up to the price tag.
The stop was worthwhile, but there are better wines at cheaper prices. It didn’t help that we had just come from Sullivan and had those excellent wines fresh on our palate for comparison. For me, the Sullivan wines won, and they were significantly cheaper ($55 vs. $88 for Cabernet, for example). We left just shelling out the $20 for the tasting, amused but with a bit of sticker shock.
Our host for the day took the standard tasting room schtick to a whole new level. I’ve heard ad nauseum the percentages of blends, source vineyards, and likely food pairings (“this would be a great barbeque wine), and I can only imagine how dull the speech would be after you had repeated it 200 times in a day. I don’t know if our guy was tired at the end of the day and trying to entertain himself, or just completely full of shit, but it was entertaining to watch him try as hard as he did.
We started with a side-by-side pour of their 2011 Unoaked Chardonnay and their 2009 Chardonnay. In reference to the Unoaked Chardonnay, we got the following:
“You could pair this with some fresh Ahi tuna sashimi, perhaps on a cracker with a bit of black and white sesame, a dash of truffle oil, a sliver of avocado and some shaved radish.”
Really? I decided to play with him a bit.
“That’s your recommended food pairing? Could you be more specific?”
“The fish’s name was Bob, and he had a left fin that went a little like that” as he mimicked a crooked, Nemo-like undeveloped fin with a wry smile.
At least he played along, acknowledging on some level he was full of shit.
I was most excited to try the two big red wines at Alpha Omega: their Cabernet and their Bordeaux blend, the “Alpha Omega Proprietary Red”. Our host poured us out these beauties, and it was on his description of the Proprietary Red that we hit our ridiculousness peak:
“This is our flagship blend, the Alpha Omega Proprietary Red. The Cabernet is like the skeleton. The Petite Verdot is the muscle, the Malbec the blood, and the Cabernet Franc the intelligence.” I’m making it up a bit, but it was something very similar that spewed from his mouth. I just laughed at him at this point and rolled my eyes.
What about the wine, you ask? It was actually quite good. The whites were better than average, especially the Chardonnay, but at $58/bottle it was pretty severely overpriced. The theme continued with the reds – both the Cabernet and especially the Proprietary Red were quite good, but at $88 and $90 respectively, the wines didn’t live up to the price tag.
The stop was worthwhile, but there are better wines at cheaper prices. It didn’t help that we had just come from Sullivan and had those excellent wines fresh on our palate for comparison. For me, the Sullivan wines won, and they were significantly cheaper ($55 vs. $88 for Cabernet, for example). We left just shelling out the $20 for the tasting, amused but with a bit of sticker shock.
Recommended wine: I actually liked most of what I tried, especially the Chardonnay (the oaked more than the unoaked) and the Proprietary Red, just not at their respective price points.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.25 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.50 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 4.25 |  VALUE | 3.25 |
 OVERALL | 4.06 | ||
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