August 31, 2023
All year long we look forward to releasing our Halloween Wines.
For 13 years now, we’ve paid tribute to our ghostly history by producing special Halloween wine bottles for our Wine Club and Mailing List Members. We enjoy giving our Wine Club Members exclusive access to wines crafted with our Napa Valley estate-grown Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Read more about our tips on throwing the spookiest Halloween Party!
This year, General Manager Nat Komes, the creative spirit behind this annual endeavor, worked with comic book illustrator, graphic novelist and digital comics pioneer, Steve Ellis. Steve has created All Hallows’ Eve labels for us before, and he and Nat continue to outdo themselves. With a full harvest moon in the background, a black crow scolds a pumpkin-headed figure who seems to have fallen asleep beneath a grapevine. Is it the winemaker, worn out from the long days and nights of harvest? Or is it a disheveled stranger who wandered into the vineyard to take a nap? A fallen scarecrow? We’ll leave it to you to decide!
This limited-production Cabernet Franc is powerful and full bodied, with ripe currant, wild blackberry and black cherry fruit that will have you shivering with delight. Ancillary notes of fresh herbs, black tea and brown sugar lend complexity to the wine, and there’s a lovely integration of seductive vanilla oak. Lush and giving on the palate, this is a finely balanced Cabernet Franc with polished tannins and a hauntingly long finish.
Napa Valley is home to a number of “ghost wineries” – wineries built between 1860 and 1900 but abandoned in the early 20th century due to the vine disease phylloxera, the Great Depression, and of course Prohibition. One of these ghost wineries happens to be the home of John Komes. Originally constructed in 1885, the Charles Brockhoff Winery was an active winemaking operation for over twenty years until Prohibition forced the family out of business. It remained abandoned until the 1930s when Louis M. Martini arrived in Napa Valley, using the building mostly for storage. When his parents, Jerry and Flora Komes, purchased the property in 1977, John completely renovated the old stone winery. He lives there with his wife, Carrie, to this day. Every year we bottle a small amount of Malbec in honor of the property’s illustrious history.
Our 2021 Ghost Winery Malbec shows gorgeous purity and focus, with a dense core of ripe black cherry, cassis and violet-tinged floral notes that mingle with hints of cedar and dark chocolate. Notes of worn leather, espresso and toasty oak round out the supple, harmonious palate. The wine finishes with firm tannins and persistent notes of spice and wild berry.
Join our Wine Club to ensure an annual allocation of these limited, popular releases. Learn more about the many benefits of membership.
August 16, 2023
Note: The article excerpted below was originally published in Forbes Magazine and can be found here.
“Think Pink: Barbie Would Approve of a Picnic of Tinned Fish and Rosé”
By Jeanne O’Brien Coffey
Pink wine. Lush orangey-pink salmon spread. How could you go wrong?
Everyone else is tying into the Barbie juggernaut, so why can’t I? Tinned fish is so versatile — in Sauternes, France, they mix sardines with cream cheese and serve it on crackers paired with Sauternes wine, naturally. For that combination, choose a young bright one, with less of the sweet intensity of an aged bottle.
We are in our pink era. So, let’s talk rosé. I’m always singing the praises of rosé as a wine that goes with everything year-round — and honestly, most Provencal rosés are custom-made to pair with fish.
The more berry-cherry offerings from other parts of the world, made with different varietals, can be a bit trickier, but there’s likely a tinned fish for every rosé. Toss a couple cans into a beach bag with some fancy crackers or a loaf of French bread — maybe some smoked olives and some sliced in-season cucumbers—and you have a perfect meal in no time that travels anywhere.
Flora Springs 2022 Rosé and smoked salmon: This cherry-fruit-forward rosé ($32), made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and Vermentino grapes, is sustainably-farmed in Napa Valley. The big fruit flavors make it a perfect pairing with luscious (and trendy) Fishwife smoked salmon.
Fleurs de Prairie with Sardines: This lovely subtle rosé from the Languedoc ($20), with its lightly pineapple nose and dry minerally strawberry palate, is a good pairing with rich, oily Siesta Co. sardines. Made mainly with Grenache Noir and Syrah, it’s got good structure, yet even adding a squeeze of lemon to tame the oiliness of the fish, the acidity of the wine doesn’t overwhelm. And of course it’s a brilliant way to get your Omega-3s.
Proxies Non-Alcohol canned Sparkling Rosé and vegan tinned fish: While Proxies’ bone dry, limited edition beverage ($30/six-pack), made from a blend of Riesling juice and strawberries with white tea and lime zest, would totally pair with actual fish, it seems fun to serve a wine-substitute with a fish substitute — and the Mushroom Snow Crab from Seed to Surf totally fills the bill, with its sweet-savory profile. The rosé is crushable— luscious bright berry flavors and a hit of citrus balanced with good mouthfeel and a savory finish.
Beau Joie Rose Champagne and caviar: Caviar counts as tinned fish, right? Although you do need to keep it in a cooler rather than pell-mell in your beach bag. If you add this gorgeous bottle ($130), encased in woven copper and made from a 50 percent Pinot Noir and 50 percent Chardonnay blend, heads are guaranteed to turn. Bubbles in general are palate-cleansing and food friendly, so it’s no great surprise that these are a tasty combination.
Priest Ranch Sparkling Rose and uni: This fruity/peachy wine ($60), made from 100 percent syrah grapes, is less restrained than the Beau Joie, and might stand up better to some of the stronger tinned fish — I could see it being very nice with smoked mussels. Or Priest Ranch Estate Chef Dan Solomon suggests La Brujula sea urchin would be a nice complement — rich and buttery with a deep-sea flavor. If you’re feeling fancy, chef says sea urchin is best chilled, and served on warm brioche toast with a squeeze of lemon and fresh herbs (top with caviar to really gild the lily).
Our 2022 Napa Valley Rosé is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and Vermentino grapes and is made the wine using a classic technique known as Saignée. Once the handpicked grapes arrived at the winery, we whole-cluster pressed the fruit, removing the juice from the grape skins quickly in order to preserve freshness and imbue the wine with a lovely, light pink color. Learn more about this wine.
We invite you to our St. Helena Tasting Room in Napa Valley for wine tasting while enjoying views of flourishing vineyards and the western hillsides. Plan your Napa Valley trip.
“Lauded as one of Napa Valley’s local hidden gems, the St. Helena winery and tasting room offer visitors a relaxing respite to learn some of Napa’s unique history and experience some of the region’s top-rated Cabernet, Chardonnay, single varietal, and Bordeaux blends, including their award-winning Trilogy.” — Napa Valley Life Magazine
The Komes and Garvey Family has always been farmers first, and over the years the family has acquired 500 acres throughout Napa Valley, 300 of which are planted to vineyard. With estate properties stretching from the cool, rolling hills of Carneros to the famed sub-appellations of Oakville, Rutherford and St. Helena, Flora Springs produces varietal wines ranging from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and other red Bordeaux varietals. Each year the family selects a small percentage of the yield for their own wines, selling the remaining fruit to neighboring Napa Valley wineries. This selection puts the focus on quality, not quantity, resulting in hand-crafted wines that meet the family’s exacting standards. Read more about our treasure trove of vineyards.
August 1, 2023
August 4 is National White Wine Day, and what better way to celebrate than with our new release 2022 Vermentino — a truly unique wine. Flora Springs has always been committed to creating and sharing exciting white wine. After all, it was our gold-medal winning Chardonnay that put Flora Springs on the map back in 1978. Vermentino, a wine we made specifically for wine club members, is a rare find. Sourced from a tiny, 2-acre block of organically farmed Vermentino located in Rutherford, we believe this is the only Vermentino planted in Napa Valley.
While a new varietal for Flora Springs, it is actually an ancient white wine grape, found primarily in the northeastern region of Italy, from Liguria down the coast to Tuscany — and, as we recently discovered, in that tiny gem of a vineyard in Rutherford, Napa Valley. As soon as it was harvested, we knew it was going to be compelling. Gentle handling of the grapes and lightly “oaking” the wine in seasoned French barrels yielded a bottling as irresistible as that early award-winning Chardonnay.
Vermentino is often compared to Sauvignon Blanc in body and taste. Our 2022 Vermentino is a dry, minerally white with flavors of grapefruit, citrus, honey, grated ginger and a hint of wet stone. Finely knit with zesty acidity, the wine is vibrant on the palate and carries a long, mouthwatering finish.
Pop this open for wine-curious friends on August 4 to celebrate National White Wine Day, and if they’ve been to Italy and experienced the Vermentino varietal there, so much the better! Only 200 cases were made, we anticipate a high demand and expect it to be snapped up swiftly — shop now.
White Wines to Enjoy for National White Wine Day
Our 2022 Flora Springs Soliloquy is the continuation of a remarkable journey that began in 1989. Noting the unique character of a small block of Sauvignon Blanc from our Crossroads Vineyard in the Oakville AVA, we fermented and bottled it separately as our first Soliloquy white wine. Whole cluster fermentation and seven months of aging in seasoned French oak barrels yielded a multi-faceted blend of white varietals with well-rounded flavors of grapefruit, white peach, Meyer lemon, and brown spice. At 80% of the blend, Sauvignon Blanc anchors the wine with lush flavors and zesty acidity. Ten percent Chardonnay brings a creamy mouthfeel and notes of Bosc pear and apple. Malvasia gives the wine its beguiling notes of citrus flower and jasmine.
Our 2022 Sauvignon Blanc offers bright fruit flavors of grapefruit, lime, passion fruit and mandarin orange with subtle floral notes of honeysuckle and orange blossom. The wine has a broad, creamy mid-palate with perfumed notes of lychee nut and Asian pear, and there’s a slightly nutty quality that adds to the complexity. The finish is spicy and mineral-laced, bringing the wine to a mouthwatering close.
Our Flora’s Legacy Chardonnay is a limited-production, one-of-kind wine made in honor of Flora Komes, our mother, grandmother, and the woman who inspired the founding of Flora Springs Winery. Every year we involve the whole family in the creation of this wine, a barrel selection of the finest Chardonnay of the vintage.