Each year we devote one day to celebrating the release of our signature red wine, Trilogy.
The creation of Trilogy goes back to 1984 when our family set out to make the best wine possible by selecting the highest quality wine lots culled from our estate vineyards. By blending traditional Bordeaux varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc — we created one of the original Meritage wines. Over the years we’ve added other Bordeaux varietals to this Cabernet-based blend, always seeking to create the very finest wine from each individual vintage.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Flora Springs Winery.
To celebrate, we’ve created a special bottling of our 2014 Rennie Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, which received 95 points from The Wine Advocate. The label – a fanciful rendering of our beloved estate in St. Helena – is from an original painting we commissioned when Jerry and Flora Komes first purchased the property. It became the cover of the very first brochure we ever produced about the winery. If you look closely, you can see Jerry and Flora in front of the old Ghost Winery, toasting their new lives with a glass of Napa Valley Cabernet!
#ChardonnayDay: Join the 8th Annual Global Celebration of the Chardonnay Grape
After thirty years of crafting world renowned wines, the Flora Springs name has become synonymous with perfectly balanced Napa Valley Chardonnay. The legacy began when our inaugural vintage in 1978 was awarded a gold medal at the Orange County Fair. A few years later our status of gold was bronzed when James Laube selected Flora Springs as one of his “First Growth” producers of Chardonnay in his book California’s Great Chardonnays.
Enter to win: Tweet or Instagram with us on May 25th using hashtag #ChardonnayDay and @florasprings in your tweets/posts. We will pick one lucky Flora Springs fan using #ChardonnayDay and tagging us in their tweet or Instagram post! You could win a Flora Springs prize pack.*
*Must be 21+ to enter. Void where prohibited. Wine will not be included in prize pack. Chance of winning depends on number of entries.
To me, the real value of a bottle of wine lies in what you eat with it and who you share it with. When I select a wine I always imagine the food that I’ll serve, and if possible the characteristics of the person or people with whom I will share it. At our table, one of our favorite topics of conversation has to do with the wine we’re drinking and the food we’re enjoying it with.
Let’s say I’ve selected Chardonnay as the white wine and Cabernet Sauvignon as the red wine. In my opinion, Chardonnay is the Queen of the wine world and Cabernet Sauvignon is the King. Winemakers love to work with these varietals because of the naturally full flavors that come from the fruit. Plus, there are many more complex flavors that arise during the fermentation and aging processes.
I like Chardonnays that are full-bodied, meaning they show weight on the palate. At Flora Springs, we like to have a slight creaminess to the wine and at the same time preserve the acidity so it will finish clean on the palate. The flavors experienced should be in the range of fresh-picked fruit such as pears or peaches. One should be able to taste a delicacy of honey with a slight lactic tone. My favorite food pairing with Chardonnay is lobster or even better, lobster bisque. The buttery character of the lobster and creaminess of the bisque are perfect with a well-made Chardonnay. And my favorite companion to share this pairing would be my wife, Carrie.
Now for the King. Cabernet Sauvignon berries are small and intensely concentrated; they don’t carry a lot of liquid that would dilute their flavor. I think of the Cabernet grape as masculine with its tannic structure. The tannins give the flavors of cassis and blackberries a ride on the palate, but the palate doesn’t getting overly saturated with fruit flavors. Thus, Cabernet is perfect with a medium rare steak; it cleanses the palate of the fatty meat flavors and leaves a lasting impression of structured fruit. Again, Carrie is my preferred partner with Cabernet, along with the rest of my extended family!
I hope you enjoy my passionate description of the wines I love. May your next bottle of wine be enjoyed in good company!
We’ve once again commissioned Melissa and Mercedes Baker, known as The Baker Sisters, to create several seasonal art installations at The Room this year.
As a celebration of Arts in April and Earth Day, currently installed on the exterior of the tasting room is “Imagine” – a living tribute to Flora Komes, our mother, grandmother, and the woman who inspired the founding of Flora Springs Winery.
Visit any day in April to witness this tremendous artistic feat. Then, step inside for an art-centric flight of select wines and peruse a curated gallery – featuring some of the most popular visual artists in the valley. Every weekend we will feature a mix of live music, live paint sessions, a barbershop quartet, and spontaneous songs courtesy of BottleRock’s – and our own – Serf & James.
Join us after-hours for our Flora’s Social Open House on April 21st. Learn more and RSVP by April 19th.
“Love the land and it will love you back,” as Flora said, and after 40 years of winemaking over three generations, this remains at the heart of Flora Spring’s mission.
First observed in 1958, National Library Week is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support.
This year, National Library Week will be observed April 9-15, with the theme “Libraries Transform.”
Nat Komes, third generation family member and Flora Springs General Manager, has a particular affinity for libraries, as his mother worked as a librarian when he was growing up. Nat developed a great love of reading, which continues to this day, and which he is sharing with his own children now. In fact, after spending time at the library reading to them, Nat has found inspiration for several of his wine projects.
We will be celebrating National Library Week, as well as the 40th anniversary of the winery, by opening our wine library. Library wines are older, unique, and rare wines that have been purposefully stored to age. Like libraries transform minds, the aging process transforms wine – often in unexpected and delightful ways.
Stay tuned as we will be releasing select library wines, available exclusively online.
Join us at The Room or The Estate for our limited-time Libraries Transform tasting experience and discover for yourself how age has transformed the 1989, 1995, and 2011 vintages of Trilogy.
We will also be celebrating with live music at The Room on April 8th and April 15th.
You can also join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – and follow along with hashtags #NationalLibraryWeek and #LibrariesTransform.
On February 4th, we celebrated our 15th Annual Trilogy Release Party – and the 30th release of Trilogy, our flagship wine.
Experience the fun – watch the 2014 Trilogy Release Party Video. And if you attended the party, be sure to visit the photo gallery where you can view and download the photos of you and your friends.
Save the date – February 3, 2018 – for our 2015 Trilogy Release Party. Stay tuned for more details!
A little rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of the scores of revelers who came out last Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Trilogy. And how could it? From the Flora Springs wines that filled guests’ glasses to the food stations offering delicacies from Napa Valley’s finest restaurants to the ska sounds of our favorite party band, The English Beat, there was more than enough entertainment to keep guests from worrying about a few drops of the wet stuff.
Guests from all over came to our 15th annual Trilogy Release Party. For many, this was not their first time to a Trilogy party. “I’ve been coming to this ever since it started,” said one guest, who traveled more than three hours with five of his closest friends to spend the day at Flora Springs Estate.
It was all hands on deck for Flora Springs’ proprietors and extended family. Event hosts John and Nat Komes kept guests entertained and laughing, with John regaling fans with stories and jokes and Nat setting the pace on the dance floor. At Flora’s house, the winemaking team Paul and Enrico led VIP tastings of Flora Springs’ about-to-be-released 2014 Single Vineyard Cabernets, and in the Tasting Room, Kenny, Karl and Scott poured library vintages of Flora Springs Cabernet Sauvignon. Meanwhile, Joseph, Richard and the sales team kept people’s glasses topped with ’14 Trilogy, and as always, Margaret – our hostess with the mostest – made sure the event went smoothly.
In addition to wine, food and music, there were photo ops, shopping, T-shirt styling (with Trilogy Tees, of course!) and even a nail art booth. It was there that we ran into a mother and daughter who had driven up from the Bay Area to attend the party. “My daughter’s boyfriend gave her these tickets for Christmas. It’s all about experiences and making memories!” We couldn’t agree more.
In this post we mentioned just a few of the people who hosted and made the 15th Annual Trilogy Release Party a success, but there were many more family members, Flora Springs employees, and event planning partners who deserve to be recognized. Thanks to everyone for your help and hard work!
