PAUL STEINAUER, Winemaker
Born in St. Helena, Paul studied Marketing and Finance at the University of Oregon. He worked five harvests at Joseph Phelps Winery between school years before realizing that wine was his true calling. In 1990, he jumped at the opportunity to join the Flora Springs team as Assistant Winemaker, crafting wines that best express the well-cared-for fruit and distinct vineyards owned by the Komes and Garvey families. In 2008, Paul was promoted to Winemaker at Flora Springs.

Paul’s wine education has come through experience in the cellar at Flora Springs, enology courses at UC Davis, and since 1993, through his tasting group that includes winemakers at several Napa Valley wineries. He counts the magnificent estate fruit from Flora Springs’ 650 acres of vineyards throughout the Napa Valley as a real boon to his task as a winemaker. “At Flora Springs, we’re able to have seamless communication between the farming side and the production side,” says Paul. He credits Vineyard Director Pat Garvey and President John Komes with keeping the quality of Flora Springs’ wines a top priority as evidenced in the sustainably-farmed vineyards and recent addition of a new press and sorting table to gently handle all of Flora Springs’ estate fruit.

Paul is an avid fly-fisherman and golfer, and an intrepid traveler: he has traversed all seven continents (including Antarctica), trekked through most of the world’s major winegrowing regions, and visited approximately 40 countries.

“We’re very excited to have Paul ushering in a new era at Flora Springs,” says Flora Springs President John Komes. “He’s proven himself as an accomplished winemaker and we’re thrilled to have his creativity and his craftsmanship on our team.”

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