Flora Springs celebrates its 30th

­Next generation now leads family winery

By LOUISA HUFSTADER
and JACK HEEGER

It was 30 years ago this harvest that two young couples invited their friends to the Napa Valley to help pick grapes for their first crush. Working in 100-degree heat, they brought in the fruit — then crushed and froze it until the following spring, when Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards became a bonded winery with a license to make wine.

“We made great wine from those grapes,” recalled Julie Garvey, who co-founded the winery with her brother John Komes and their spouses.

John Komes remembers that first vintage a little differently.

“Our stories never matched,” he said with a laugh, adding that they gave most of the 1978 to their friends.

But with the very next vintage, Flora Springs had a winning chardonnay. And this year, Komes and Garvey are marking their winery’s 30th anniversary by handing the reins over to a new generation.

Recently named Flora Springs’ general manager, Nat Komes is the son of John and Carrie Komes. Julie and Pat Garvey’s son Sean Garvey is the company’s manager of production and communications.

“We’re going to let them run it,” said John Komes, who now divides his time between the Napa Valley and Arizona. A golf enthusiast, he owns an inn near Scottsdale; the Komes also own the Rancho Caymus Inn in Rutherford.

Julie Garvey has already moved on, although she’s “still a cheerleader” for the family winery. A former schoolteacher, she now works in spiritual counseling, teaching and leading retreats.

The winery is named after the siblings’ mother, Flora Komes, who with her husband Jerry bought the original Komes Ranch, an old Louis Martini property along the Rutherford-St. Helena line, in 1977. Natural springs on the land provided the rest of the name.

“My brother thought it sounded like a mattress company,” Julie Garvey recalled.

“It was always ‘we’.”

Flora and Jerry, a former president of the Bechtel Corporation, hadn’t planned to make wine when they bought the land. But their son John, a home winemaker for years, urged his father to consider starting a winery.

“He said ‘OK, if you invite the whole family to join in,’” said Julie Garvey, adding “My father, with all his achievements, never used the word ‘I’ — it was always ‘we’.”

That ethic has held up over the decades, as has the company’s first employee: Rudolph Delgado is still with Flora Springs after 30 years. Winemaker Ken Deis stayed for more than 28 years before moving on; his replacement is former assistant winemaker Paul Steinauer, who joined Flora Springs in 1990.

The family now owns ten vineyards, totaling 650 acres from Oakville to Pope Valley. Twenty percent of their grapes go toward making 50,000 cases of Flora Springs wines each year; the rest are sold to neighboring vintners.

In the beginning, 80 percent of Flora Springs’ production was white wine, just 20 percent red. Today, it’s exactly the opposite: 80 percent is red, including several single-vineyard cabernet sauvignons and the winery’s flagship Trilogy blend.

Introduced in 1984, Trilogy was originally named because it was first made with equal portions of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc: “Three wines that can stand on their own, but when you put them together it rises to a higher level,” Nat Komes said.

The family added malbec in 1998 and petite verdot in 2002, so that Trilogy now contains a quintet of all five Bordeaux varietals.

Flora Springs’ Soliloquy, by comparison, is 100 percent Oakville sauvignon blanc, sur-lees aged for seven months after fermentation.

“We think we have an amazing source of fruit for sauvignon blanc,” said Julie Garvey. “We thought it deserved a name of its own, so we called it Soliloquy: one wine, not a blend.”

Nat Komes added, “The name is also a way of having a consistent style. People didn’t like sauvignon blanc because of the herbaceousness, but we were looking at sauvignon blanc differently.”

Soliloquy was introduced in 1989, when chardonnay dominated the white-wine market.

“People didn’t care for sauvignon blanc then, so we put it into a bag and had them try it blind,” she said.

“Not your typical square”

The Flora Springs tasting room, on Highway 29 in St. Helena, is undergoing some eye-catching changes as part of the family’s 30th-anniversary commemoration. Expected to reopen later this year, the building is being remodeled to resemble a hillside with three wine caves inside.

There will be no windows, John Komes said. Tasting will take place in the caves.

“It’s definitely different,” said his sister. “Not your typical square building.”

Until the new tasting caves open, Flora Springs is offering private tours and tastings ($20) at the winery, located just down the road at 1978 W. Zinfandel Lane. For more information, contact Flora Springs at  963-5711 or visit www.florasprings.com.

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