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As of press time, they have finished all renovation and have moved into their modern tasting room. Create an ambience where people can come to relax - the use of water in this regard is very important and not enough Napa wineries are able to do this. In the case of Alpha Omega they have built a beautiful large reflecting pool with five fountains in the middle. A covered porch area with comfortable chairs is a great place to sit and relax. Outdoor seating is also available near the pool. Due to limited estate vineyard land they source grapes from a number of high end Napa vineyards. In fact they are becoming a Sauvignon Blanc only estate - as the vineyard you see in front of the winery next to Highway 29 is planted entirely to this varietal and plans call for the few Merlot rows they have to be converted to Sauvignon Blanc. The tasting room is open and airy - the tall ceilings help in this regard. The white marble topped tasting counter forms 3/4 of a square. A few limo groups had totally filled all sides of this counter when we last visited...so we just squeezed in and looked at home. Their tasting flight typically includes 4 wines. We started our tasting with a 2005 Chardonnay. It has a nice bouquet with hints of butterscotch, pear and banana (don't always find this flavor in Chardonnays!). It is oak aged - on the palate you may find lemon lime notes with honeysuckle and a slightly roasted nut flavor. The 2007 Rose is an unusual blend that includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc. There are not too many Rose's like this in the Napa Valley. It is very dark pink with floral aromas of dried rose petals, cherry and chocolate. The palate surprisingly contains very concentrated flavors compared to the typical lighter style Rose's that we are used to drinking. Wild strawberry and raspberry flavors are anchored by delicate tannins. We tried both the 2004 and 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon blends. Both wines are delightful and elegant, great for pairing with foods due to the bright fruit and lively acidity - the 2005 is actually smoother and slightly softer. Both feature very ripe fruit; we picked up raspberry, blueberry and black cherry on the palate. The Proprietary Red Wine blend unfortunately was sold out at the time of our visit as it is in high demand. They make a late harvest Sautern style Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon blend to die for. There are only a select few wineries in the Napa Valley that make a wine like this and Alpha Omega's 2004 version is killer. You have to be careful with the Sautern style wines - sometimes they have an annoying minerality presence towards the finish which in our opinion is a defect (however some people enjoy this). This wine does not have this - its all about the fruit and the balance. As it is a young wine it is light golden/yellow in color - age this and it will turn a nice amber dark gold in the bottle. This wine is extremely well balanced which keeps it from being cloyingly sweet. Nice stone fruit aromas include apricot and peach with minor hints of coffee. The fruit flavors follow to the palate picking up a little pineapple, lemon and honey. Despite this wine being sold out, there is hope; they do release a vintage each year! Alpha Omega is a winery owned by winemakers who have many years of experience in the industry and 2006/2007 was their flagship year - it would be wise to buy a few bottles and keep them for your collection as the price of these bottles 5 to 10 years from now most likely will be a lot higher than they are now. Total production is about 6000 cases. The famed French blending master, Michel Rolland consults for Alpha Omega and helps in their final blending decisions. We saw an interview with Michel - he says he tastes between 30,000 and 35,000 different wines a year. Whew, what a job! Check out their blog: aowinery.spaces.live.com and visit www.aowinery.com |
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