Did some searching and saw very little about them. Last weekend I went to a wine festival at the Aviara Grand Hyatt near my house. It was a bunch of no name wineries many local to SD/Temecula but there were also a handful of decent wineries from Paso/Sonoma/Napa.
I knew the event would not attract most of the real wine crowd in San Diego but rather the Instagram crowd. Ok full disclosure, I went mostly to look at beautiful women. But I also went with the hope I may discover something and I did.
My favorite wines of the day were from Barlow Vineyards in Calistoga. All estate fruit the owners brought a Rose, Cab, left bank blend, Reserve cab, Petit Verdot and my WOTD a 100% Cab Franc. There are so few 100% Cab Francs coming out of Napa and many have strong green notes but this had none of that. Its very limited production (about 2 barrels/39 cases). Its a small family owned/operated winery around since 1994. Total production all wines about 2000 cases
All the wines were of good quality and best of all fairly priced between $45 and $60 except the Reserve Cab at $120 for current release of 2014. Looking at their website they have a nice selection of library wines also fairly priced
Wondering if anyone else was familiar with them?
I wanted to give them some visibility here. Nice folks with nice wines at nice prices deserve that. I’ll probably visit them next time Im in Napa if they arent out of town.
Been a fan for years, but don’t really buy - I don’t know why. Great wines, great people. Last time I visited (many years ago) the tasting was in their home, around the kitchen counter. I suspect that may have changed by now.
Nice! if they had wine to sell I would’ve left with at least 3 Cab Franc. Rather than order I want to visit where I can taste more and hopefully some older examples.
Had a number of their 97 cabs back in the day. They disappeared from the PA marketplace. I believe they are on the left side of the Silverado Trail as you head northbound and up the hill.
Also have been a fan since the early 00s and finally met them exactly as you did at a festival where they were pouring, and each subsequent year I’d buy a few bottles at the festival. One morning a few years ago while driving through Napa, I sent an email through their website and asked if they had a tasting room and offered tastings. They replied quickly and asked if I could be at this address at this time. About 1/2 hour later I found myself parking in a driveway, then inside their kitchen/living room with a long lineup of bottles to taste through. Talked for a bit and tasted wine, small tour and history of the property, but this was their residence so it felt a lot more like a friendly visit. Great people.
It was great and I always mean to buy more. I still have at least 1 bottle of their family selection and some cab. They’re primarily farmers and sell their fruit to a lot of well known producers. I think it was another case of making some wine and people telling them it was too good not to sell.
Thanks for posting this reminder. Ann and Barr volunteer on my ShotLink crew every year for the Napa PGA tournament; super nice people and we have chatted quite a bit about wine but I just have not got around to getting up to see them. Must get an email out to them to line up a visit.
The name sounded familiar so I checked my CT consumed list and found I went through 6 bottles of their cab about a decade ago. They were a 2011 wineaccess purchase. Very solid. Glad to hear they are still around and doing well.
Very cool to hear; I’m always looking for lower-priced high-quality Napa producers. I just placed an introdcutory order of 1 each 2019 Cab Franc, 2018 Cab Sauv and Barrouge. Thanks for posting, and I’ll eventually post TNs here.
It seems like I met Barr shortly after arriving in Napa Valley in 1999 when we brought Barlow in at Dean & Deluca though haven’t seen him, or tasted the wine in at least 10 years.
