Open: 10:00am-4:30pm
Appt required? Yes
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012 (April 18, 2012 Itinerary)
Directions:
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Tasting:
With our stop at James Cole ending more quickly than we expected, we had time to squeeze in an unplanned stop at Reynolds Family on our way out of town. We parked along the driveway and ambled up to the tasting room, a large room with a medium-sized tasting bar and the ubiquitous winery logo paraphernalia throughout the rest of the space. Adorning a shelf over the tasting bar were three giant paintings of the owner’s teenage children. I suspect these were a source of a lot of eye-rolling and embarrassment in the Reynolds household, but they also reminded visitors of the family nature of the winery.
The standard tasting was of four wines for $10, refundable with a 4-bottle purchase. We started with the 2008 Chardonnay and the 2008 Pinot Noir (from Carneros), both decent but unremarkable wines. We then had the 2007 Cabernet, a wine I thought was very good and very reasonably priced at $45. If I had room in my carry box, one definitely would have come home with me, but I’d purchased a lot of wine up to this point and this was a wine I could live without. We had one “off menu” wine next – the 2007 Cab Franc -- before sampling Reynolds’ flagship blend Persistence™. The name is in fact trademarked, something I don’t see explicitly called out much in Napa Valley so it looked a little odd on the list. Putting that aside, the blend, like the Cab, was also quite good.
The wines were pretty good and very reasonably priced at Reynolds Family, the room and people accommodating, and overall a place I would give another shot. It had almost more of a Sonoma tasting room feel to it. Low on pretension, reasonably priced, and definitely an atmosphere I wasn't expecting on the southern tip of the Stag's Leap District. I left empty handed, but that was mostly due to the timing of the visit than the wine quality-to-price ratio.
The wines were pretty good and very reasonably priced at Reynolds Family, the room and people accommodating, and overall a place I would give another shot. It had almost more of a Sonoma tasting room feel to it. Low on pretension, reasonably priced, and definitely an atmosphere I wasn't expecting on the southern tip of the Stag's Leap District. I left empty handed, but that was mostly due to the timing of the visit than the wine quality-to-price ratio.
Recommended wine: The 2007 Cabernet was a good value at $45. Very solid wine from a great year.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.00 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.00 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 4.00 |  VALUE | 4.50 |
 OVERALL | 4.13 | ||
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