What did you make of the alpins?
I've just bought a set but I'm yet to put them on as it's still relatively warm here though it did drop under the magic 7 last night
They performed really well. Found them good in the wet, great in the dry and great in the snow. Road noise was not noticeable and I have put a set on my wife's Nissan Juke.
I just fancied a change last year and purchased the Nokian WR D4 as they had a wet rating of A. Not much between any of the mentioned tyres but the Nokian's are better in the wet in my opinion. Not really had a chance to test them with heavy snow.