December 4, 2020
Join the 6th Annual Online Celebration of Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is often considered a blending grape, but after farming a small block near John Komesâ home on the Rutherford side of the Komes Ranch for decades now, we know this grape can produce a luscious, smooth and rich wine that stands on its own.
For the past six years, Nat Komes has delighted in creating a limited-edition, one-of-a-kind Halloween Wine, a Cabernet Franc named All Hallows’ Eve.
How to participate:
- Join us online December 4. Weâll be talking about Cab Franc all day.
- Follow us on your favorite social site: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.
- Enter to win: Tweet or Instagram with us on December 4th using hashtag #CabFrancDay and @florasprings in your tweets/posts.
- We will pick one lucky Flora Springs fan to 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.
September 22, 2019
Exclusively for Great Tastes Wine Club Members
Calling all music lovers! Nat Komes personally invites you to our own Antiques Roadshow-style Pick Up Party focusing on music collectibles and memorabilia. Guests are invited to bring up to two items – including vinyl records (LPs, 45s, 87s, EPs), CDs, posters, flyers, handbills, sheet music, scores, folios, awards, photographs, programs, tickets and/or concert materials – to have them evaluated by Stephen M.H. Braitman, ASA Accredited Senior Appraiser of Music, Archives & Memorabilia. You can also sell and/or swap memorabilia with other Wine Club Members! And of course the festivities will be accompanied by delicious new releases from Flora Springs, including our much anticipated Halloween Wines.
Join Nat and the Flora Springs team and be sure to bring your dancing shoes. Weâll have a DJ spinning vinyl on the rooftop! Space is limited so we encourage you to RSVP today to Wine Club Manager Madeline Nossiter at (800) 913-1118 or wineclub@florasprings.com by September 16th. Space is limited and will sell out quickly.
Complimentary for Wine Club Member and one guest
Additional guests: $50 per person
Learn more about the benefits of Wine Club membership.
September 1, 2019
Itâs no secret that Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and itâs that time of year again when we conjure up the ghosts of spirits past. September 1 â October 31, join us at The Room for a frightful good time.
Enjoy an exclusive tasting of our seasonal, winery-only Halloween wines that will send shivers down your spine. Taste the new release of our limited-production 2017 Ghost Winery Malbec and 2017 All Hallows’ Eve, each year recognized by Catherine Bugue, the St. Helena Starâs tasting panel writer who writes “Itâs Halloween…gather up friends and good wine on the 31st for a nightâs respite from the weekly grind? Adding a wine like Flora Springâs iconic All Hallowsâ Eve Cabernet Franc brings good fun to the mix.”
Since everyone loves Halloween decorations, we will have our favorite skeleton art installed on the front of the building.
Learn more about visiting The Room and our more anticipated releases of the year, our Halloween Wines.
August 15, 2019
Plan your Halloween Wine Country Visit
Halloween is more than just a day at Flora SpringsâŠitâs an entire season! After all, with one of the few remaining Napa Valley Ghost Wineries on our property, weâre reminded year-round that there are phantoms and spirits who walked here before us. So we celebrate in a big way, dreaming up fun costumes, planning spooky tastings and events, such as our Ghost Winery Tour, and looking for new ways to decorate The Room, The Estate and our own homes. For General Manager Nat Komes and his wife Anne thereâs another reason to celebrate: their wedding anniversary falls on October 31st!
Napa Valley Halloween
Of course in Napa Valley the wine you serve on Halloween is nearly, if not just, as important as the candy bowl! Itâs the adult version of the âtreat,â and thatâs why we put so much effort into producing special Halloween-themed wines for our Wine Club and Mailing List Members. These are not your average Halloween wines, made to drink and forget. We set the bar high in terms of quality, using some of the best fruit from our estate property, including Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Because these vineyard blocks are small, they lend themselves perfectly to these limited-edition wines.
Unique Labels
Our Halloween labels are also a labor of love. Each year Nat Komes and his team let the creative juices flow as they seek inspiration from album cover art, comic books, childrenâs book illustrators and other artists to create brand new one-of-a-kind labels and packages. Skeletons, witches, pumpkins and black cats have all found their way onto these labels, in whimsical designs meant to treat, not trick. The only exception is our Ghost Winery Malbec, which always features a hand-drawn etching of our historic stone cellar on a label reminiscent of Flora Springsâ earliest releases.
Now is the best time to acquire your favorite labels, as these wines sell out fast. See all of our seasonal, winery-only Halloween Winesâthey’ll send shivers down your spine! Do you have a favorite design?
Halloween Entertaining
Weâd love to hear about your Halloween traditions and party ideas. If you have a story or tradition to share, email us at info@florasprings.com or check out our We LOVE Halloween Pinterest board where we have collected all types of creative entertaining tips and ideas for a spooky wine tasting party.
October 23, 2018
Note: The following article was originally written by Catherine Bugue and published in the St. Helena Star on October 16, 2018 and can be found here.
Wine of the week: Flora Springs All Hallowsâ Eve 2016 Cabernet Franc Napa Valley
It was dark. She was tense. He came at her with a knife.
And as she grabbed the knife away from him, she sighed irritably, and used the corkscrew end to open the wine bottle herself. She was in no mood for his theatrics.
Itâs Halloween â itâs time for stories! Why not gather up friends and good wine on the 31st for a nightâs respite from the weekly grind? Adding a wine like Flora Springâs iconic All Hallowsâ Eve Cabernet Franc brings good fun to the mix. The 2016 Cabernet Franc label features a spooked black cat and carved pumpkin; the wine has enough rich dark fruits and spice complexity to stand up to the spookiest of ghost stories.
See also special etched bottles like the Drink in Peace Merlot, complete with coffin wine box.
Order by 5 pm October 23 for delivery by Halloween. Please call (800) 913-1118 with questions on shipping times. Shop now.
October 11, 2018
Note: The following article was originally written by Jess Lander and published in the Napa Valley Register on October 11, 2018 and can be found here.
Creepy visitors, ghostly wines: Flora Springs gets into the spirit of Halloween
As a tribute to their 1885 ghost winery, one of the few remaining in the area, Flora Springs Winery goes all out for Halloween.
You canât miss the trio of enormous skeletons that dance outside their Highway 29 tasting room in St. Helena. Inside, the walls are covered in cobwebs, rooms are transformed into a crematorium and morgue, and you might just find a headless horseman sitting at your table and struggling to sip his wine (for a lack of mouth). But the decorations, done by local design team, The Baker Sisters, are just the beginning. The wineryâs Halloween preparation starts months in advance.
For eight years running, Flora Springs has released a collection of limited release, Halloween wines. Featuring custom labels and usually 100 percent bottlings of varieties that are traditionally used for blending, the initiative was started by Nat Komes, general manager and son of proprietors John and Carrie Komes. He has a personal fondness for the holiday and even tied the knot on Oct. 31.
Komesâ inspiration for the Halloween collection came from an unlikely place: beer. Once a year, hundreds of thirsty fans spend hours lined up outside Santa Rosaâs Russian River Brewing Company, all for a taste of their cult release, Pliny the Younger.
He wanted his own version of that, saying, âI was trying to generate some of that excitement in the wine business.â
There might not be a line outside of Flora Springs, but thereâs certainly a high demand among the wineryâs followers. The Halloween wines often sell out well before Halloween each year and have become collectors items in the cellars of many wine club members.
It all started with the Ghost Winery series in 2010. For the labels, Komes partnered with artist Wes Freed, best known for his eerie illustrations on Drive-By Truckers album covers. One of those albums was a favorite of Komesâ brother.
âMy brother passed away from cancer right when I was starting the Ghost Winery project,â said Komes. âThatâs how I got a hold of Wes Freed, because that was his favorite record at the time. I reached out to him, started telling him about my brother, how he loved the art, and he came right back to me and said, âLetâs get going on this.ââ
Over the years, the Ghost Winery series evolved into the Halloween collection with a Ghost Winery label at its centerpiece. Always a bottling of malbec âfittingly sourced right in front of Flora Springsâ ghost winery â the label is a modern interpretation of the 1978 label. It features a sketch of the stone ghost winery building, which was severely damaged in a fire in 1900, but has since been restored.
While the Ghost Winery Malbec stays the same every year, the labels of the others change. Komes develops his vision by scouring through childrenâs books, album covers, comic books and even skateboards, then contacts the respective artist and commissions them to create a one-of-a-kind wine label for that yearâs release.
His favorite label of 2018 is the 2016 All Hallowsâ Eve Cabernet Franc, a throwback to old school Halloween imagery of a black cat and jack-o-lantern. The art was done by artist Emmenline Forrestal, a former wig maker who illustrated the childrenâs book âGloppy,â a favorite of Komesâ daughterâs.
The true collectors item this year is the 2014 Drink In Peace Merlot. On it, a hand-etched, glow-in-the-dark skeleton holds a wine bottle across its chest. It even comes packaged in a coffin box.
And then thereâs the 2013 Black Moon Cabernet Sauvignon. Available only in magnums, itâs already sold out and therefore as rare as an actual black moon (defined as an additional new moon that appears in a month or in a season, or the absence of a full moon or of a new moon in a month).
Skateboard artist Dennis McNettâs illustration depicts the phases of the moon surrounded by bats, which Komes said are regulars in the steeple of the ghost winery. The art is etched and hand painted on the bottle.
The new ghost tour
Those who want to taste the Halloween wines can reserve a tasting at The Room, Flora Springsâ St. Helena tasting room, but this year, the winery is taking their celebrations to a new level of creep with a ghost tour. Flora Springs has teamed up with Napa City Ghosts & Legends to lead a paranormal tour of the ghost winery and estate on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 10:30 a.m.
Komes said he was always curious if the ghost winery was haunted and that Napa City Ghosts have since identified three spirits during their recent visits. Thereâs Matthew, who supposedly died in a horse-related accident, a flapper who loves to party, and another man who gave off a particularly unsettling vibe.
Letâs hope heâs not in the mood for socializing that day.
For more information on Flora Springsâ Halloween tastings and ghost tour, visit www.florasprings.com/events.
Helpful Links:
Visit The Room | Visit The Estate
Ghost Winery Tasting at The Room
Paranormal Ghost Winery Tour at The Estate
Our Ghost Winery History
Halloween Wines
Ghost Winery Malbec
2014 Drink In Peace Merlot
2013 Black Moon Cabernet Sauvignon
October 1, 2018
Itâs no secret that Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and itâs that time of year again when we conjure up the ghosts of spirits past. October 1 â October 31, join us at The Room for a frightful good time.
Enjoy an exclusive tasting of our seasonal, winery-only Halloween wines that will send shivers down your spine, including our limited-production 2016 Ghost Winery Malbec.
Learn more about visiting The Room.
September 27, 2018
Note: The following article was originally published in the Wine Spectator on September 27, 2018 and can be found here.
Paranormal Activity at ‘Ghost Winery’
“…But if you missed the chance to commune with Napa’s dead last weekend at the St. Helena Cemetery, fear not: There are plenty more spectral vintners doomed to roam the terroir for all time (it’s been said some Napa winemakers even sold their souls), and not a few so-called “ghost wineries” they’re thought to haunt. The old Rennie Brothers Winery, completed in 1900, is oneâthe once-thriving wine factory sat derelict through Prohibition before its rebirth as Flora Spring Estate. On Oct. 28, the winery is bringing in local paranormal investigators/Napa history fiends Ellen MacFarlane and Devin Sisk, who most recently appeared together on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, to lead a haunted tour and wine lunch in the old stone cellars and caves. “As one of the few remaining Napa Valley ‘ghost wineries,’ we are constantly reminded that there are phantoms and spirits who walked here before us,” noted general manager Nat Komes to Unfiltered.
As in past years, Flora Springs is also releasing a set of Halloween-themed wines…with limited-edition label art from painters and illustrators: All Hallow’s Eve Cabernet Franc, Ghost Winery Malbec, Black Moon Cabernet Sauvignon and Drink in Peace Merlot (glow-in-the-dark label; comes in coffin-shaped gift box) are a few representative treats.”
Helpful Links:
Book your Paranormal Ghost Winery Tour at The Estate – October 28, 2018, only 30 spots available
Check out our Halloween Wines
Learn more about our Ghost Winery history
October 12, 2017
Itâs no secret that Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and this year we are celebrating with special new Halloween releases, including 2015 All Hallows’ Eve Cabernet Franc, 2015 Ghost Winery Malbec, 2013 Harvest Witch Cabernet Sauvignon, and more.
These seasonal wines are spooky and sure to sell out! Shop Halloween wines.
Halloween is Tuesday, October 31st. Order deadlines for on-time delivery begin October 12th. See details for your delivery destination on our Holiday Shipping Guide.
About the Artist
Currently the official Artist in Residence at Coit Tower in San Francisco, Jeremy Fish has a degree in painting and a focus in screenprinting. His education and work experience has lead to a career as a fine artist and commercial illustrator. Finding a balance between exhibiting his work both across the US, and internationally in galleries and museums, he also maintains a presence designing skateboards, t-shirts, vinyl toys, album covers, periodical illustrations, murals, sneakers â and now, wine labels. His artwork is mainly about storytelling and communication, told through a library of characters and symbols with an emphasis on finding a balance with the imagery somewhere between all things cute and creepy. Jeremy has been based in San Francisco for the last 20 years. Learn more.
