JOHN KOMES, President
While John Komes will say that hard work and a stellar team are the keys to the longtime success of Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards, first-hand interaction with John hints that the secret ingredient to Flora Springs’ success is John’s charisma. He’s a laugh-out-loud kind of guy, who when he smiles, his eyes dance. He teases, he jokes, he holds court in any group situation, and makes everyone in his midst feel like a member of the Flora Springs family. Underneath his convivial exterior are a hardworking tenacity and an enduring passion for wine.

Growing up in San Francisco in the mid 1950s, John was the son of the President of construction giant Bechtel Corporation. John graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in Business Administration and followed in his father’s footsteps as a business man, building a thriving construction business of his own based in the East Bay of San Francisco. John’s entrepreneurial drive can be traced to his father Jerry Komes, legendary for being self-taught in everything from swimming to engineering by reading.

John’s interest in wine began as a hobby in the early 70’s when his wife Carrie sent him to a wine appreciation class near their home in Pleasant Hill, CA as a gift. From there it became an obsession, and he attended more and more classes. It wasn’t long before he was making his own wine at home as a hobby.

In 1977, his father Jerry Komes retired to the Napa Valley, purchasing a home that included an abandoned winery and vineyards. With his growing interest in wine, the potential of the property piqued John’s interest and the thought of making premium wine in the beautiful Napa Valley led him to found Flora Springs in 1978 with his parents, his sister Julie Garvey and his brother-in-law Pat Garvey.

John eventually moved his construction business to the Napa Valley, using his enterprising ingenuity to specialize in building and renovating wineries. When the demands of Flora Springs grew to be too much, John gave up doing any construction that didn’t involve the winery. Instead, he painstakingly renovated each winery building on the property, eventually turning the two abandoned cellars into separate winery facilities and supervising the construction of 1,000 linear feet of wine caves.

As President, John oversees all aspects of the winery’s production, sales and marketing. John credits his family’s drive, determination and unquenchable thirst for knowledge as one of the main contributors to the success of the winery for the last 30 years.

John sees a bright future for Flora Springs as he gears up to let his son Nat Komes, Flora Springs’ General Manager, and nephew Sean Garvey, Flora Springs’ Communications and Production Director, take the lead. “This is more than a business, it’s an art. Both Nat and Sean are the type of creative thinkers we need for the future of Flora Springs as one of the premier family-owned wineries of Napa Valley,” he smiles.