Robin Baggett possesses a proclivity for cowboy boots, cowboy hats, big pickup trucks and large rodeo belt buckles. Michelle Baggett personifies “Georgia peach” and southern hospitality. Together, this down home couple followed their unpretentious hearts from San Luis Obispo to Napa Valley in 2006 to found Alpha Omega.
A former scholarship athlete and baseball star at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Robin aimed for a career in the major leagues — in grapes not baseball. An attorney whose law career included an eight-year stint as General Counsel to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, Robin launched his wine business in 1988 as a grape grower. He planted over 800 acres of grapes and in 1998 founded Tolosa winery in San Luis Obispo, where he is currently the managing partner. Long before they wed, Robin introduced Michelle to the wine industry, and it was she who created the name and the brand for their future venture together, Alpha Omega.
Robin, who hails from Salinas, Calif., serves as the managing partner of Alpha Omega while Michelle presides over the Alpha Omega Foundation. In the late 80’s Michelle began her multifaceted career in the development of hospitality brands. A Marietta, Georgia native, Michelle designed five-star hotels. She excelled in Beverly Hills and then Honolulu as a Senior Designer of two of the world’s leading international hotel architectural firms. Her hospitality development background led her to a position on Hawaiian Airlines’ marketing team followed by a marketing and public relations firm in San Luis Obispo, where Robin’s name is synonymous with success.
A 1998 inductee into the Cal Poly Athletic Hall of Fame, Robin also had the school’s new baseball stadium named after him in 2001. In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater.
The compassionate couple splits their time between their homes in Rutherford and Pebble Beach. Robin sits on the board for Napa Valley Vintners, the Wine Institute, Festival Napa Valley, The First Tee of Monterey County and Cal Poly’s Athletic Director’s Council. Michelle is President of the Rutherford Dust Society, board member of the St. Helena Hospital Foundation, Founding Board member of the Napa Valley Film Festival and live lot co-chair for the 2017 Auction Napa Valley. The Baggetts are V Foundation for Cancer Research President’s Club members and in 2011 were honored by the V Foundation as Vintner Grant Recipients.
In 2016, their altruistic nature led them launch the Alpha Omega Foundation, which donates 100 percent of all money raised to deserving causes and nonprofits. Supporting charities in the Napa Valley, Pebble Beach and San Luis Obispo communities, philanthropy is a second career for Robin and Michelle.
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