Karen Tripson

9.3

Way out of my regular neighborhood with folks who love it and subscribe. Lucky to be invited along for the ride. — 2 years ago

brando cox

9.2

Found this winery in a small German town in the Mosel valley. Knocking on the door, we met the two +90yr old men, owners who showed us around and invited us for drinks. On the wall there were pictures of both of them from the war 😬😳. In the cellar we tasted many different reislings which were all completely stellar. All amazing and may be peaking now, after 7yrs cellaring. Notes of honey pineapple, lime petroleum baked apple & minerals. Great silky mouth feel. 4€ !!!!?! — 5 years ago

Jay Kline

9.2

BYOB. We got invited to see Kethro perform some of his latest work at LOW END. Popped and poured into Stainless Steel YETI tumblers while me got drenched in fresh beats. The 2011 “Cuvée Orience”, while certainly showing secondary and tertiary characteristics, is showing beautifully right now! Blue fruits and dark fruits, tart cherry, pastureland, black pepper, and cool damp coniferous forest floor. On the palate, blueberries, dark cherry, spiced and cured deli meat, and Herbs de Provence. The acid, which was quite zippy, has done a wonderful job keeping this alive. The tannins, which seemed well integrated in the first glass, started to gain strength by the second glass. The finish was remarkably looooong and satisfying. While they aren’t dying anytime in the immediate future, there is no reason not to drink and enjoy this now. — 5 years ago

Mike Lundberg

9.5

Was fortunate enough to be invited to share this 21 year old Grand Cru Classe’ masterpiece! — 7 years ago

with Sylvia, Todd and 1 other

Jay Kline

9.0

We were invited over to a house warming gathering for some friends and they graciously provided some Neapolitan pizzas. We brought three bottles of Ferrando Canavese. This stuff is just so delicious; so easy to enjoy and outrageous quality for the money. Tough to find so swoop it up when you see it. — 8 years ago

Diane Withrow

9.0

Garnet. Deep dark red cherries. Tannin only slightly pucker. Leather light. Cat 5 refers to Hugo. I was on the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques where we indeed experienced a force 5 hurricane. I’m convinced my invited daughters became twins during the storm so this wine is sentimental as is opening this bottle Mother’s Day weekend. I love Yadkin Valley as our NC wine Center. Beautiful wines are produced in small batches. — 8 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.1

They should have called the Winery Floral Springs based on the nose. Beautiful; blackberry, black raspberries, dark cherries, strawberries, dry cranberries and plum floral fruits. Nice spice, vanilla, touch of clove & cinnamon, used leather, dark rich soil, crushed volcanic minerals, black fruit tea, black raspberry cola and dark fresh florals with violets. The tannins are 95% resolved. The body is lush & ripe. The length, tension & structure are nearing the end. Just a few years left of being worthwhile. However, the balance is stereo tuned. The fruit on the palate shows even more elegant & ripe floral fruits than the nose. Blackberry, black raspberries, dark cherries, strawberries, dry cranberries and plum floral fruits. Nice spice, vanilla, light clove & cinnamon, used leather, dark rich soil, crushed volcanic minerals, black fruit tea, black raspberry cola and dark fresh florals with violets for days. The acidity is like a waterfall. The beautiful, long, elegant finish is a little lean yet has a nice richness. Beautiful wine that just missed 9.2. Photos top to bottom and left to right. The Winery; which is separate from the other tasting room only on Hwy 29. The tasting room on Hwy 29 in St. Helena, Flora Spring caves and the front of their tasting room along Hwy 29. Producer notes and history...the stone winery on the grounds were built in 1885 by two immigrant brothers from Scotland, James and William Rennie. They were in construction, built the winery and planted 60 acres of grapes. The brothers had some bad fortune when phylloxera consumed the vines, and then a fire in 1900 destroyed their wine press and cooperage. In 1904, they sold the winery and fifteen years later Prohibition started. The winery was then closed until 1933. That year, Louis Martini, looked into their magic eight-ball and saw Prohibition collapsing and bought the Rennie property. They built a new stone house and also made a reserve wine from the hillside vineyards. However, the old winery remained empty until the Komes family bought the property, 325 acres, the old farm house, the newer stone house and 60 acres of vineyards. The son thought he’d persuade his dad to restore the old winery and proposed to call it Chateau Jerome. Although it had been designed by Hamden McIntyre an architect of several other classic 19th-century Napa wineries, by 1977, the place was a wreck. The tin roof of the building had so many holes in it. They called it the starlight roof. His father looked at it and stated, “I’ve worked all my life for my good name. I don’t want to squander it now.” John’s mother, Flora, however, sided with her son on the potential of the property. Carrie Komes suggested they could name the winery for her mother-in-law. Combined with the abundant springs on the land, they decided the name would be Flora Springs. It was a sure way to their mom’s heart and father’s wallet. Komes put his construction expertise to work on renovating the old winery, which still had scorch marks on the walls. So skeptical was his father about his son’s wine-making project, they divided the winery building. John rented half where he put his first fermenting tank, which he named R2D2. He invited a couple of friends from his wine-making class to help make wine at the new place. He also hired Mary Ann Graf, who in 1965 had been the first woman to graduate from the viticulture and enology department at UC Davis to help manage the project. She told John, “if you don’t hire a winemaker, I’ll quit.” He did and the 1979 Flora Springs chardonnay won a gold medal at the Los Angeles County Fair. In those days, it was fairs, not ratings. This was his first lesson in marketing as they sadly sold all the wine before they won the medal. Fairs were the big news instead of ratings as Parker had not yet risen to fame as he was the only one to call the grand 1982 Bordeaux vintage correctly. They submitted their 1981 Cabernet to eight fairs and won seven gold medals. From there, the winery just kept growing. They were the 67th winery in the county. Over the years, they had their ups and downs, but kept growing. One of their highlights was the creation this wine, Trilogy. It was one of the first Meritage blends in the valley. By 1984, they planted all the Bordeaux varietals; Malbec, Merlot, Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. They wanted to create a blend “by taste”, not by formula for a nice smooth wine that goes deep into the palate. They worked with a little of this and little of that. The first Trilogy was Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cab Franc. It was dubbed as velvet in the mouth. A lot of what they do is taming the tannins. One man who bought Trilogy by the case said, “it’s the only red wine his wife would drink young.” From the leftovers, they began making single-varietal estate wines. Another highlight was the discovery of a unique clone of Sauvignon Blanc in vineyards his father bought in Oakville. UC Davis could identify nothing like it in their vast library of clones. They were a bit ahead of the times, but this clone showed Flora Springs how different in that time period what Sauvignon Blanc could be like as it took all the grassiness out of Sauvignon Blanc. — 9 years ago

Jay Kline

9.6

Okay…so I entered the night fully aware that we were going to be taking down some unicorns…but this?!  I wasn’t prepared for this. I walked into the room, greeted my fellow brothers-in-wine and began to set my contributions next to the other bottles in the line-up. I casually scanned from left to right in complete wonder at what was on display…and stopped halfway, as my eyes recognized a label from the recesses of my memory. A label that had been filed away under the category of “Academic” since there was very little likelihood that I would ever see a bottle, let alone have an opportunity to enjoy it. And yet, here I was, in a small town north of Lincoln, NE, staring in disbelief at a bottle of 1990 Gentaz-Dervieux. I turned to our host who, at this point, was smiling at me; like a childhood friend who had invited me over to play with his GI Joe Aircraft Carrier, the U.S.S. FLAGG. “F***ing Gentaz?!”

The nose? Magic. Brambles, granite, mushrooms, cumin, espresso, purple flowers, leather, smoke; so sanguine, so savory. Vinous. Rustic. Tremendous with Iberico pork cheek, mushroom ragu with lavender and thyme. I took my time. Drink now through 2035+. — 2 years ago

Philip Deibel

9.5

We enjoyed this bottle last night, but this is a much cooler picture. Earlier this year my sister was invited to a fundraiser in LA where a friend purchased every seat at Thomas Keller’s table. Not only did her friend invite her to come with her boyfriend, but he also invited her to bring our parents. After Christmas I wanted to let her take a bottle back to LA for the dinner. It was a hard decision, but I went with some old world class. It turns out that he knows the producer well and is a big fan! Phew! I’ll be honest, I was blown away by Alban’s Reva, but then we opened this and it just screamed class. Such a refined and elegant beast. Balanced/Seamless. — 6 years ago

Henry R

9.3

As they say....there's is a party in my mouth, and everyone is invited! — 7 years ago

Gregory Fulchiero

8.9

Elegant - light bodied cool climate Pinot - refreshing. Med + acidity invited another sip — 8 years ago

Jason Lee

9.2

This mango tropical fruit orange wine that im obsessed with (maybe im basic). Structured fun that I love as an aperitif or as a late night sip.an Italian will probably say this is a food wine but don't listen I wanna pop this every day and feel like I'm on vacation. Destination wedding wine for someone that has never been invited to one and probably never will be — 8 years ago

Andy Tam

9.2

Wine Fair and the distributor was a nice PRC gentleman with a few of his friends opening across Lafite, Angelus, etc. They were all drunk and totally not interested in selling any wine. And he graciously invited me to taste the last few btls left. They all tastes awesome. Maybe the graphite and complexity but maybe it was really the unexpected hospitality. — 9 years ago

Tates from the States

9.3

2023.12.15 To our secret alcoholic club, we invited the big boss and he brought a Condrieu to taste. — 3 years ago

Jay Kline

9.0

I was completely unfamiliar with this winery until a visit to Dry Creek back in 2019. We randomly booked an AirBNB in neighboring Geyserville that happened to belong to the proprietors of Unti. They invited us to visit the winery and I’m so glad we made the effort to do so. They specialize in varieties that grow in and around the Mediterranean. This bottle of the 2016 Montepulciano was brought back from that winery visit and enjoyed over two days. It showed best on Day 2 and these notes reflect that experience.

The wine pours a deep garnet with an opaque core and a slightly watery rim; medium+ viscosity. On the nose, medium intensity with raspberries, blackberries, lingonberries, baking spices, purple flowers and crushed concrete. On the palate, a mixed fruit set with mostly blue and black fruits, figs, blackberries, mulberries, dark cherry, baking spices and minerals. Medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. This finish is long and dry. Came across quite young and primary. Years to go on these. — 5 years ago

Skip Smyser

9.4

The last wine was 2016. This is ‘15 and very intense rich dark fruit. The tasting and cave experience is excellent. Hard to get in. We carry at Capitol Cellars so they invited us in. Very good experience 🍷🍷🍷🍷 — 6 years ago

M. Christopher Roebuck

9.1

Grocery store bought in Como Mercato. We finally settled into a great Airbnb in Laglio--- a few doors down from George and Amal. We were invited to the Villa, but the heck with that... I haven't had good thoughts about Hollywood since at least 2016. Anyway, decent cab/sang blend, welcome departure from Langhe, but nothing spectacular. I do love other offerings from this winery though.

91 points — 7 years ago

Colin Wright

9.5

Invited this Somm 3 movie star to dinner and it definitely didn’t disappoint. It is Burgundy in California, and like Tom Hardy in Hollywood, it has plenty of talent. Cherries and raspberries with violet and a subtle earth, finely balanced in the mouth. Trying not to finish it before the coq au vin is done, ask @Lyn Farmer for a solid coq au vin story. — 8 years ago

Gail Thompson

9.3

Wine that Andrea recommended; this is the vineyard that invited him to NYC and that he wants us to visit. — 9 years ago

Carling Acthim

9.2

Wet stone is the first guest to the party, with lime, green apple, unripe mango and a lil bit of peach not too far behind. Oily, big and beautiful with a zingy acidity and freshness that leaves you feeling zestfully clean. This wine was invited back before it even got through the front door. You're complicated yet open, tell me more. — 9 years ago