Ben Lehman

9.1

Tastes like Spring! YumPeach skin, limes and meyer lemon — 6 years ago

Jon Ebsworth

9.2

Fresh crisp Chenin, enjoyed over a Monday lunch at St John — 6 years ago

Peter Sultan

9.1

My second rodeo with Mr. St John, glad I am here: a deeper dive into black fruits than his Cote Du Rhône homage, & a more generous palate. Still all in balance, a restrained hand, but the terroir speaks through his hand, amen. Grenache, some Tempranillo, some Mourvedre, and some Graciano. Decanted about 1/2 hr. Delectable allows me to name only my local tag sale but not my town? Whaadup @Delectable Wine ? — 7 years ago

Sion Dafydd Palmer

9.0

Delightful night at the fair🍭. Apple bobbing🍎, waltzers, traveling folk, candy floss. Wake up with candy floss caked to face, which is the overriding bonce tones. Long sweet apple 🍏, pepper. Bit srtinge but that’s ok 😋 😂 — 7 years ago

Robin Pembrooke

9.2

Very nice from st John wine box — 8 years ago

Matt Perlman

9.3

Very special opportunity to try this ~30 year old GSM from one of my favorite winemakers. Dark spicy fruit still very much alive with enchanting secondary characteristics--smokey mesquite / campfire, earth, rocks, leather on both nose and palate. Thanks @Max Kogod! Got any more? 🙂 — 9 years ago

Brett Birman

9.2

Lingering jammy finish, smooth, juicy, red fruit, high alcohol, reminds me of edmunds St. John rocks and gravel but on steroids. — 9 years ago

Richard Garcia

9.2

This was a real treat. Not sure if I'll ever see another bottle of it again. 😭 — 10 years ago

Jim McCusker

9.1

Easily one of the better incarnations of this wine, the 2015 Sky is drinking really well. I think (but am not 100% certain) that by this vintage Greg Brewer had moved from Melville to John Hilliard’s operation just down the road on Route 246. Has many of the same characteristics you’d expect from a St Rita Hills pinot - beautiful bright strawberry-laced fruit, a bit of earth and spice, all wrapped together in a wine with a seamless mouthfeel. Very sad that life circumstances compelled John and his wife to shut HB down, but this wine is a terrific reflection of what they achieved in a very short space of time. Cheers! — 6 years ago

with Vanessa

Jon Ebsworth

9.0

Earthy Provençal red to go with St John grub — 7 years ago

Alvaro Bustillos

9.2

John barela — 7 years ago

Steve Anderson

9.2

Another excellent BTG. Went well with the Stone Fruit Salad at Compline. — 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. — 8 years ago

Matt Perlman

9.2

Fresh and lifted take on Cali Syrah, with an old world sensibility per usual when it comes to ESJ. Pretty perfume of violets, wild berries, topsoil, coffee and bacon. Palate gives a surprising rush of high toned red and purple fruit—cherry pastille, boysenberry with floral and herbal undertones. A beauty — 6 years ago

Betsy Schermer

9.0

St. John at The Hoxton Dinner Series — 6 years ago

with Anna

Lindsey King

9.3

Delicious!! Bright cherries and briney olive notes. — 7 years ago

Tanetha Jamay

10

John said this is his go to — 8 years ago

Michael McNabb

9.1

Delicious! — 8 years ago

Isaac Pirolo

9.6

For as much ritz and glamour that is typically associated with Napa Valley, this week highlighted who the real rock stars are in their community... the farmers and firefighters. Haley Wight is the sixth generation to farm her family’s estate, the historic Lewelling Ranch in St. Helena, originally established by her great-great-great grandfather John Lewelling in 1864. She also happens to make extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignon. So extraordinary, that I’m going to skip writing a note and just tell you that Robert Parker hits the nail on the head... “The wine displays gorgeous licorice, lead pencil shavings, black currants, loamy soil undertones and a touch of barrique. Dense purple, it has a full-bodied, multi-layered mouthfeel and a stunning finish with good acidity and velvety, well-integrated tannin, alcohol and wood. This is a scrumptious, full-throttle Cabernet Sauvignon to drink over the next 15 or so years. 96 points.” — 9 years ago

Nancy Bernstein

9.0

Love this — 9 years ago