Great Tastes Newsletter
Welcome Great Tastes members. We hope you enjoy learning more about the Wine Club shipment wines in your Notes.
Current Issue: May 2023
2018 Trilogy & 2019 Trilogy
"Lately it’s become a joke around Flora Springs that the three things we don’t discuss are politics, religion and the 2020 vintage. With two wildfires in Napa Valley on top of a global pandemic, 2020 is a year we’d rather forget. Although we were able to make a very small amount of red wine in 2020, for the first time since we introduced it in 1984, we didn’t make any Trilogy at all. The good news for Great Tastes wine club members is we’ve been able to access enough wine in our library to offer you older (and perfectly aged) vintages of Trilogy from 2018 and 2019..."
March 2023
2020 Napa Valley Merlot & 2020 Jon Nathaniel Lavender Hill Pinot Noir
"Your shipment this month includes our 2020 Napa Valley Merlot, a wine that has always had a special place in my family’s heart. We were one of the first wineries to produce Merlot when we created our first vintage in 1980, and it has always been a favorite with our customers and our own family members. Recently we made a decision to focus our Merlot production on ultimate quality, utilizing only the small blocks in our estate vineyards that produce the finest grapes of this varietal. This includes our Windfall Vineyard on Bella Oaks Lane in Rutherford, a prime mid-valley site where we have less than two acres of Merlot planted. We’re excited at this shift, as it means we are making this special wine just for the family, which includes you, our treasured wine club members. ..."
January 2023
2020 Sangiovese & 2020 Poggio del Papa
"Our family has made wine from the Sangiovese grape for a couple of decades, ever since a trip to Italy introduced us to the varietal. Back then, Sangiovese was becoming more popular in Napa Valley, and we were among the first wineries to offer the wine to club members and guests. But in more recent years the acreage devoted to Sangiovese has decreased, ceding space to more “profitable” varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, there are only 141 acres of Sangiovese in Napa according to the most recent Napa County Agricutural Report. Compare that to 18,200 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon! But our family is still a big fan of Sangiovese..."
2022
November 2022
2018 Holiday Cabernet Sauvignon: Snow Much to Celebrate & Gnome for the Holidays
"I hope you all know by now that one of my favorite projects is creating the artwork for the one-of-a-kind Holiday Bottles we make each year for you, our loyal club members. I’ve taken inspiration for the art from many places, including the vast collection of holiday cards, ornaments and other décor that my grandmother, Flora, adorned her house with each year. But this year my creative juices were stimulated by someone else..."
September 2022
2020 Ghost Winery Malbec & 2020 All Hallows' Eve Cabernet Franc
"When our family founded Flora Springs in the late 1970s, harvest was a family affair, with relatives and friends joining us from around the Bay Area to help us pick grapes over a couple of weekends. As our vineyard holdings grew, we hired a full-time vineyard crew to help with harvest, though we still reserved a few rows for our family. In the early 1980s, everyone in Napa Valley picked during daylight, starting after sunrise and finishing up in the afternoon. But our family came up with a better idea..."
July 2022
2021 Soliloquy & 2018 Three Keys Cabernet Sauvignon
"It’s hard to believe, but it was 1989 when we produced our first Soliloquy white wine. We’d noticed there was something special about the Sauvignon Blanc grown in a small block of our Crossroads Vineyard in the Oakville AVA, so we decided to bottle it on its own. Shortly after our hunch was confirmed when UC Davis certified Soliloquy as a singular clone entirely unique to our vineyard. In the 1990s when the vines became diseased and the clone nearly went extinct, we decided to take action..."
May 2022
2019 Napa Valley Merlot & 2019 Petit Verdot
"I was walking through one of our vineyards the other day and happened to see a hawk circling overhead in what I assume was an attempt to find its next meal. I’ve always thought hawks were a good omen, and as birds of prey, we like seeing them in the vineyard, especially as we get close to harvest. Sweet grapes can attract flocks of smaller, harmful birds that love to munch on the fruit, and hawks, as well as owls and falcons, are a natural, non-interventionist way to keep bird populations in check. We try to make our vineyards hospitable to birds of prey, setting up feeders, providing water sources for drinking and bathing and maintaining tall trees at the perimeters for shelter. It’s one of the many ways we practice sustainability at Flora Springs, which to us means leaving the land in better condition than we found it. As my grandmother, Flora, always said, “Love the land and it will love you back.” We take that to heart..."
March 2022
2019 Trilogy & 2020 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc
"It’s hard to believe I was just a teenager when my family started making Trilogy 35 years ago. We’d recently moved to St. Helena, into the “Ghost Winery” on the southwest side of town my father had renovated top to bottom. Napa Valley was a different place then, as was St. Helena. No restaurants or tasting rooms to speak of, and certainly no art galleries. Not even a stoplight..."
January 2022
2019 Sangiovese & 2019 Poggio del Papa
"2022 has a lot in store for us at Flora Springs. First and foremost, the Trilogy Release Party is back! We’ll be celebrating with two events, one at our Tasting Room in St. Helena and another at the Inn at Eagle Mountain, the hotel my dad owns in Scottsdale, AZ. If you’ve been to one of our Trilogy parties, you know we pull out all the stops for this once-a-year event, and having missed out on 2021, I can tell you we’re ready to P-A-R-T-Y!"
2021
November 2021
2018 Holiday Blend - Bearing Gifts & 2018 Holiday Blend - Peaceful Dove
"For me, the holiday season is year-round, due to the one-of-a-kind Holiday wines we produce annually. Bottled in “shiners,” i.e., bottles with no labels, our Holiday wines are carefully stored until we’re ready to hand-etch and paint the designs we create each year. Quite often I take inspiration from my grandmother Flora; as an animal lover, she would have loved this year’s illustrations of wild and woodland creatures. Hand-painted and with capsules and back labels applied one by one, our Holiday wines are a way of thanking you, our wine club members, for your loyalty throughout the year. We hope they bring joy to your holiday celebrations..."
September 2021
2019 All Hallows' Eve Cabernet Franc & 2019 Ghost Winery Malbec
"It's no secret that Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. As a kid I looked forward to it for months, planning my costume and my trick or treat "route" to ensure the biggest candy haul ever. As I grew older, Halloween continued to be a thrill. Though trolling for candy was no longer a thing, I still loved dressing up and going to costume parties. It was a chance to slip into an entirely different persona, if only for an evening. Now I get to indulge my Halloween fantasies in the artwork we create each year for our All Hallows’ Eve Cabernet Franc..."
July 2021
2017 Three Keys Cabernet Sauvignon & 2020 Soliloquy
"It is hard to believe that the Three Keys Cabernet Sauvignon is just one year shy of its 10th year of production. When I started the project, I wanted a wine that would pay tribute to my grandfather, Jerry Komes. He always worked very hard to make sure his wife, my grandmother Flora Komes, had the limelight when they moved to Napa Valley. Perhaps it was his way of repaying Flora for all the attention she gave to him when he was working for the Bechtel Corporation. Whatever it was, I always deeply respected my grandfather for it and saw the true meaning of what it takes to form a lasting love partnership.
I can’t tell you how many times in its nine years of production people have asked me what my grandfather meant by the “three keys of life.” I honestly still do not know...."
May 2021
2018 Napa Valley Cabernet & 2018 Petit Verdot
"When was the last time you danced until the DJ called it a night? Or visited your favorite vacation spot? How long has it been since you boarded an airplane, or hosted a gathering with friends and family from near and far? Have you been to a concert lately, or a ball game? It’s possible, depending on where you live, that you’ve been able to do at least some of these things in recent weeks. We’re all looking forward to good times like these just around the corner..."
March 2021
2018 Trilogy & 2020 Pinot Grigio
"For some denizens of northern California, the month of March means one thing and one thing only: Dungeness crab. While the season can start earlier, there are often fits and starts, but by the time March rolls around, the supply of these sweet, meaty crustaceans is nearly always plentiful. In Napa Valley, we often celebrate with festive, crowded crab feeds and I can’t think of a better accompaniment than the 2020 Pinot Grigio in your shipment. Though we can’t gather in person this year, in honor of my son’s first year in high school, I’m planning to celebrate with a virtual crab feed with plenty of Pinot Grigio to go around..."
January 2021
2018 Sangiovese & 2018 Poggio del Papa
"As we turn the calendar to a new year, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Flora Springs. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: we know you have many choices when it comes to wine clubs, and our family and team are grateful that you have selected Flora Springs. The wines we create for our loyal club members represent the finest we produce, and I hope and trust they will continue to provide pleasure and comfort in the months and year ahead...."