Rutherford’s Alpha-Omega winery has developed a deep, deep following for its beautiful Napa Valley wines sourced from the very best vineyards, both mountain and valley floor, in the entire appellation. The vast majority of A-O’s business is done from their mailing list and with visitors who flock to their gorgeous Highway 29 winery for an unparalleled tasting and hospitality experience. Their sumptuous Cabernet-based cuvees start at $150 a bottle and go north quickly from there. Most don’t know, however, that A-O also does a small but thriving wholesale business with restaurants and small retailers throughout the country, but because of the high prices their regular bottlings command, executive winemaker Jean Hoefliger and consultant Michel Rolland have been savvy enough to create a restaurant-oriented label based on the same vineyards and winemaking as their much higher-priced cuvees, just at a price that keeps it within reach of the average restaurant diner. The wine is called Alpha-Omega TWO2. In 2021, a very strong vintage for the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, the blend is 91% Cab 4% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Its sheer sumptuousness and lush, nuanced palate has swiftly made it one of our very best-selling Napa Valley Cabernet-based wines. Alpha-Omega was originally conceived to represent the push-pull between the old and new worlds of winemaking but, while there is, indeed, a sense of Bordeaux-like elegance and polish to the A-O TWO2, its ebullient aromatics, mouth-filling texture and curtain of plush tannins are very much of the Napa Valley and, with vineyards like Beckstoffer’s To-Kalon, Missouri Hopper, Dr. Crane, La Piedras and George III, along with Stagecoach and a host of others represented in the blend, it’s the Valley’s royalty in a bottle! With the blessing of the winery, we’ve sequestered a special parcel of this cuvee for an offer to our best Cab-loving customers who also might enjoy this dark, effusive expression of the Napa Valley in their own homes as well as in our restaurant. We don’t have much and what we do have will be first-come, first-served but here it is!

Wine Enthusiast: Mouthwatering and full of flavor, this red blend offers plush aromatics of hibiscus and fresh picked berries that carry into a palate of juicy plum, mixed berries, and a light accent of refreshing citrus. Fine tannins are persistent and carry into a long finish. 92 points