Flora Springs Wine Co

Right alongside the St. Helena Highway is the storefront tasting room of Flora Springs Winery. With a whole new look the once traditional tasting room has gone Millennial!

The new tasting room cave-like facade is unique in the valley and inside is a hip, casual environment with separate tables and stools–plus two iMac computers. The computers are set up to encourage blogging and tweeting about their tasting experiences.

It has the enviable location of being adjacent to the well-known gourmet-goods store Dean & Deluca. The winery itself is on West Zinfandel Lane and is open for VIP tours and tastings by appointment only. The fee is $20, and you should allow at least 90 minutes for your visit. The name of the winery came from Flora, the owner’s mother, and the springs refer to the water source on the property.

The design of the new tasting room lets people taste and talk about wines made from the third generation wine makers dedicated to the traditional winemaking practices. There are also small tasting tables about, as well as an outside patio on which to sit and enjoy your experience. A coffee house also shares the patio.

The winery has collected large vineyard holdings throughout Napa, including properties in the Oakville, Rutherford and Carneros appellations. They sell more than half their fruit to other local vintners. Their flagship wine is their classic Bordeaux blend, Trilogy, that uses 65 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, then blends in smaller amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Verdot.

In addition, the winery produces up to five 100-percent varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon wines, each from different vineyards, and each with a different style. To round out their production, they produce Merlot, Sangiovese, a “Super Tuscan Blend” (Cabernet and Sangiovese), Pinot Grigio, a barrel-fermented Chardonnay, a white blend and a dry rose.