I seem to spend much of my time wading through endless bottles of mediocre California wines that I sometimes wonder how the place ever got its reputation for fine winemaking. And then, pow! along comes a St Paul moment 
and I run across a winery making some seriously good wine, wine of subtle complexity, elegance and finesse, like Flora Springs.
I first encountered their Rutherford Hillside Reserve Cab at a tasting last October, and ranked it second out of twelve California offerings. Then, at the lunch, I found myself sitting next to Nat Komes whose family owns Flora Springs. So impressed was I by the way he talked about his family’s wines that I decided to take a look at some of their other bottlings, and thus discovered their sublime Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2006.
It shows the same magical combination of mineral-intense ripe fruit and crisp green-apple acidity that you find in great Burgundies but that’s all too rare in New World chards. It’s rich and powerful without even a hint of sticky sweetness, despite being fermented in oak, and represents the perfect marriage of Californian power with Burgundian elegance. This is chardonnay, or California chardonnay, as it should be.
California Chardonnay As It Should Be