Open: 10:00am-5:00pm
Appt required? Yes
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012
Directions:
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Tasting:
After a stellar tasting at Fisher, I made my way over Spring Mountain to the Napa side of things and a scheduled tasting at Robert Keenan Winery. They had a tough act to follow, but things started off well. A friendly black lab, tail wagging, escorted me into the tasting room from the moment I stepped out of my car.
Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the visit. I was the only person tasting, but the woman I tasted with was distracted and just not very friendly at all. This surprised Annette at Relic (my next stop), and so I assume she was just having a bad day, but she seemed anxious to get me in and out even though it was midday on a Tuesday in May. We started the tasting with the 2010 Spring Mountain Chardonnay, a decent wine but nothing special. We quickly moved on to the 2008 Napa Valley Zinfandel, a varietal you don’t see produced much on Spring Mountain. It was just okay.
Next I tried the 2008 Merlot, a wine I thought was pretty good and very fairly priced at $36/bottle. The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon came next, and my “friendly” hostess took a step in the right direction by offering to pour me a taste of the 2008 Cabernet side-by-side with the 2007. Well, I’d like that very much! I slightly preferred the 2008, and while neither wine knocked my socks off, both were pretty good offerings for $47/bottle.
There was one wine on the tasting sheet left, but now came the strangest part of the visit. The woman offered to pour me the 2008 Mernet Reserve, their Merlot-Cab blend. Great! She made a huge deal about how they never pour this wine in the tasting room, and I thanked her. Then she poured it and went on again about how they never pour it. And then harped on it again. Look, I get it – you don’t typically pour the wine, and at $96/bottle it’s costly to pour it. But she went so far past making her point that it just made me uncomfortable. On top of it, the wine wasn’t that amazing. It was good, and probably the best wine that I tried at Keenan, but it didn’t stand up to any of the wines I had just had at Fisher and certainly wasn’t worth $96 to me.
We finished the tasting with the 2008 Syrah, a fruit-forward wine that was decent but also a bit strange to have at the end after the big Cabs. I thought about possibly carrying something, but I didn’t love the experience or the wine and decided to pass. I’m sure the woman was annoyed she poured me the Mernet (or that I even stopped in), but frankly, I was a bit as well. With all of the good options on Spring Mountain, Robert Keenan is a notch below the rest for me.
After a stellar tasting at Fisher, I made my way over Spring Mountain to the Napa side of things and a scheduled tasting at Robert Keenan Winery. They had a tough act to follow, but things started off well. A friendly black lab, tail wagging, escorted me into the tasting room from the moment I stepped out of my car.Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the visit. I was the only person tasting, but the woman I tasted with was distracted and just not very friendly at all. This surprised Annette at Relic (my next stop), and so I assume she was just having a bad day, but she seemed anxious to get me in and out even though it was midday on a Tuesday in May. We started the tasting with the 2010 Spring Mountain Chardonnay, a decent wine but nothing special. We quickly moved on to the 2008 Napa Valley Zinfandel, a varietal you don’t see produced much on Spring Mountain. It was just okay.
Next I tried the 2008 Merlot, a wine I thought was pretty good and very fairly priced at $36/bottle. The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon came next, and my “friendly” hostess took a step in the right direction by offering to pour me a taste of the 2008 Cabernet side-by-side with the 2007. Well, I’d like that very much! I slightly preferred the 2008, and while neither wine knocked my socks off, both were pretty good offerings for $47/bottle.There was one wine on the tasting sheet left, but now came the strangest part of the visit. The woman offered to pour me the 2008 Mernet Reserve, their Merlot-Cab blend. Great! She made a huge deal about how they never pour this wine in the tasting room, and I thanked her. Then she poured it and went on again about how they never pour it. And then harped on it again. Look, I get it – you don’t typically pour the wine, and at $96/bottle it’s costly to pour it. But she went so far past making her point that it just made me uncomfortable. On top of it, the wine wasn’t that amazing. It was good, and probably the best wine that I tried at Keenan, but it didn’t stand up to any of the wines I had just had at Fisher and certainly wasn’t worth $96 to me.
We finished the tasting with the 2008 Syrah, a fruit-forward wine that was decent but also a bit strange to have at the end after the big Cabs. I thought about possibly carrying something, but I didn’t love the experience or the wine and decided to pass. I’m sure the woman was annoyed she poured me the Mernet (or that I even stopped in), but frankly, I was a bit as well. With all of the good options on Spring Mountain, Robert Keenan is a notch below the rest for me.
Recommended wine: None.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.00 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.00 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 3.75 |  VALUE | 4.25 |
 OVERALL | 4.00 | ||
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