Hope Springs Eternal (Tasting Flora Springs Flagship Releases)
Each year, almost without fail, I receive samples of Flora Springs‘ Napa Valley wines, usually including their flagship white (“Soliloquy”) and red (“Trilogy”).
And yet, I’ve never really featured their wines here, even after a decade-plus. Which is a shame, because they are arguably better than ever. It’s time to rectify that oversight, friends.
Flora Springs’ proprietors, Nat and John Komes, recently (in 2019), decided to downsize their operation, selling their St. Helena winery and keeping only about 20 acres of the Rutherford portion of their former estate, and reducing their production by about half of its former volume. This was probably a difficult thing for Flora Springs, but the upside is that it allowed them to refocus on the quality of their remaining vineyard lots. I think we are now seeing the payoff of that refocusing effort.
Here’s a quick look at their most recent (as of the time of this writing) flagship releases to underscore that point:
2023 Flora Springs “Soliloquy”, Napa Valley, $60
Famously, their is now a UC Davis Sauvignon Blanc clone derived from Flora Springs’ original Oakville vineyard that was the first source of this white, which was introduced in the late 1980s. For this vintage, Flora Springs blended in some Malvasia (8{83994d7454f8ce68441ea8152244c292227c3db19076e7622c8f5ff92141c35a}) and Chardonnay (7{83994d7454f8ce68441ea8152244c292227c3db19076e7622c8f5ff92141c35a}) to compliment this white’s Sauvignon Blanc backbone, whole-cluster fermenting the berries with native yeasts. Juicy and ripe lemon, jasmine, honeysuckle, lemon blossom, white melons, white peaches, very ripe pears and apples, and crushed stone all make appearances on the complex, enticing nose. Tropical on the palate, with crunchy acidity, this white combines really nice and bright lift with a sense of voluptuous roundness. It’s quintessential, high-end Napa Valley SB, basically.
2021 Flora Springs “Trilogy”, Napa Valley, $90
The 2021 Trilogy ads a bit (5{83994d7454f8ce68441ea8152244c292227c3db19076e7622c8f5ff92141c35a}) of Malbec to the Cabernet Sauvignon (85{83994d7454f8ce68441ea8152244c292227c3db19076e7622c8f5ff92141c35a}) and Petit Verdot (10{83994d7454f8ce68441ea8152244c292227c3db19076e7622c8f5ff92141c35a}) farmed from the Komes Vineyard in Rutherford (located on the Mayacamas’ western hillsides), all aged in French and a bit of American oak for a year and a half. The nose is the sleek, seductive expression you’d expect of a flagship Napa red: jammy blackberry, black raspberry, black currant, chocolate, oak spice, and vanilla. Supple in the mouth (as always—it’s kind of Triology’s thing), this vintage has maybe a bit more apparent structure and acid focus than in previous recent releases. If it’s indicative of things to come, then count me among the converts.
Cheers!
