What is the general consensus on Alpha Omega ? I ran across a bunch of what I thought was mailing list only. My friend buys through the club since the last time he went to Napa and “discovered” them. What’s the take?
I love the cabs and the era. They toe the line between modern and classic. They are not shy but they demand at least 5 years to start showing their class. Jean does a lot of weird things like a zin malbec blend which is the reason I dropped the club but the cabs are awesome and I still buy those. They just started working with las piedras fruit and I cant wait to try that. The chards are good but expensive in a slightly oaky style and their late harvest is fantastic but also expensive. Jean posts here (the wine maker) so if you add alpha omega to the title you might hear from him.
I agree with Humberto. Jean is a terrific winemaker and he has access to really great vineyard sources. He also does some interesting, labor-intensive things like fermenting Cabernet in barrels.
We buy mostly the single vineyard cabs, but like them very much.
high quality, i think they just need more time (8 years+) than most to be in that optimum drinking window.
Tasting room is very nice. Wine is good too.
The cabs and unoaked chards are great. We bought a few bottles during our visit to the tasting room in January and will be buying some more in the fall.
Interesting all. Is $60 a good price?
Interesting all. Is $60 a good price?
$60 for which wine? They make tons of different wines. For the single vineyard cabs or the ERA, $60 would be a steal.
I think it’s just the “Napa” Cabernet.
The SVDS and ERA are in the $150 range. I think $60 is about right for the Napa if I remember correctly.
I want to echo all of the positive thoughts in the thread. The AO team and Jean have been incredibly generous and hospitable – I have even directed people his way and they have made very effort to treat them as VIPs. The wines are numerous and very well made (I even enjoyed the zinfandel-malbec blend). My impressions are that the single vineyards as viewed most favorably and, in many ways, steal a lot of thunder from the intro cabernet offering. The ERA, the flagship wine, needs time, a lot of time. Overall, the wines can get pricey, no doubt, but it is a great stop right off of the main highway.
Ok guys. Thank you so much for all these nice things. Let me say that if you ever want to taste AO let me know and the door is open. Berto as far as me being weird and making different stuff might as well play in life…
Hey Jean, I am an Elite member with AO.
I will be there next Friday afternoon tasting the 12s with Steve. Maybe I will see you there?
I’ll throw my thoughts in here as well. I like both Jean and their assistant Henrik quite a bit-when Jean says to let him…he isn’t just saying it, but really means it.
We haven’t bought any wine for work from them in a while, but they let us come up and help during a day of bottling…which I’m sure isn’t a real positive given the amount of instruction we require, although someone was more than happy to let us take Pinot push downs for the day! They’ve also hosted my wife and I during our tips to Napa and frankly were probably nicer to us in terms of what they opened and the access that they gave us, then they should have been.
Frankly, it’s a beautiful place to sit and taste, with the added benefit it’s open an extra hour.
BTW Jean does make some interesting stuff, I seem to remember a Petite Verdot that got pulled out at one point, but the Sauvignon Blanc is still among my favorite expressions of that varietal made anywhere.
One thing I think they deserve credit for is listening to what people are saying and requesting. We saw them add a single vineyard version of a Cabernet after getting a ton of positive feedback about the wine in barrel from both visitors as well as staff.
The wine’s really good and the people are probably better-