Fleury Estate Winery

Fleury Estate Winery sees serious wine enthusiasts and collectors by appointment only. This small family owned winery is located mere minutes from the often very busy “wine strip” off of Highway 29, a section of Napa Valley between approximately Yountville and St. Helena which houses some of the larger and most historic wineries.

There are no signs directing one to this winery from Highway 29; a small copper colored sign above their mailbox is located next to their driveway entrance. Despite being mere minutes from the often-incessant traffic of Highway 29, when one reaches this property one’s heart rate will invariably drop a few octaves. There is no traffic, it is quiet here and one is surrounded by fields of vineyards. A gravel driveway passes through rows of vines and ends at a small dirt parking space in the shade of a large walnut tree next to an old cottage house.

Founder and owner Brian Fleury began this winery from the ground up in 1996 when he and his wife Claudia purchased this property in Rutherford. Brian was a successful businessman in the San Francisco Bay Area who was involved with various software related businesses including packaging and work with Microsoft. It was Brian’s love of wines, his friendship with Dave Del Dotto and his passion for collecting fine wines that ultimately brought him to Napa Valley.

However, there is a big difference between collecting fine wine and purchasing vineyards and building a winery in Napa Valley. Often those who come to Napa Valley from other disciplines who become winery owners, usually play a “background” role. Not so with Brian. He is completely self-taught and worked with a number of vintners and wine educators over the years. Today with the help of another winemaker, he oversees the Fleury winemaking and his son Conner is the assistant winemaker. His commute is a short one to the winery; he lives in the small cottage on the property where he used to live as a child.

This is both a passion and a family business; while they do employ one or two people, Brian is often on-site greeting visitors for the tastings. Claudia operates a successful interior decorating business and has provided her services to a number of well-known Napa wineries including Piazza del Dotto. Sometimes she will conduct tastings as will Connor.

After their initial purchase in Rutherford (site of the winery), Fleury acquired additional acreage and vineyards in St. Helena and on Deer Park near Howell Mountain. Today they own some 50 acres; 11 acres in Rutherford, 30 acres in St. Helena and 6 acres in Deer Park. With three very unique sites under their ownership, Fleury focuses on terroir and vineyard specific wines. Their Rutherford winery estate is planted to a number of Bordeaux red varieties along with some Sauvignon Blanc.

For many years tastings were conducted inside the original barrel room; this is the smaller building with the bright red doors. Individual tasting spaces were created inside this room – so even if other groups were tasting simultaneously, one would still enjoying their wines in a private space. Visitors years ago may recall the Fleury bathrooms located inside giant wine barrels. A tasting here combined the rustic feel of a working winery with a subtle elegance and Claudia’s interior décor within the curtained off tasting spaces. The barrel room has since been converted as a storage facility for winery equipment and case goods. Connor is an artist and several of his paintings are available for sale inside the winery.

Since the original winery building was constructed, a much larger winery building was built, housing both their winery and hospitality spaces. All tastings are currently hosted in an adjoining room which can be partitioned into several sections for hosting groups simultaneously. Unlike the tasting spaces in their original cellar which were confined without exterior views, these tasting spaces take full advantage of views to the west overlooking vineyards and the Mayacamas mountains in the background.

Besides tasting current vintages, one rarely leaves Fleury without trying a few barrel samples of future releases. And somewhat unusual is a number of their current releases are older wines. Brian offers a “barrel blending” seminar in which guests can create their own red blend by tasting through a variety of red components before creating a final blend. Guests participating in this will keep bottles of any blends they create.

Select Wines
Whites/Rosé
The Fleury Sauvignon Blanc is not crafted in a New Zealand style which is often associated with grassy or green characteristics, i.e., wines of this variety that often showcase bracing acidity. Rather their Sauvignon Blanc is grown in Rutherford, a fairly warm part of the valley, and tends to highly aromatic and layered with noticeable weight on the palate. If there wasn’t such a discrepancy in grape prices between Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc, we would love to see more Sauvignon Blanc planted in Rutherford. It does exceptionally well in this sub appellation.

The 2021 Fluery Estate Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley is medium gold in color; the highly expressive bouquet opens bright and fruity with generous aromas of ripe pineapple, honeysuckle, star jasmine, citrus blossom, bruised apples, papaya, pineapple guava, lemon zest and some barrel influences of caramel and vanilla. Bright, fresh and simultaneously fruity, on the palate there are flavors of pineapple, Piña colada, pomelo, passion fruit, guava, gooseberry, golden delicious apples and honeydew melon with a finishing light spicy character, perhaps a note of white pepper. It shows bright acidity accompanied by a rounded mouth feel. Perfectly balanced, this wine drinks nicely by itself, but if we were to pair it with something it would be with halibut drizzled in a light lemon-butter sauce with dried thyme.

Albariño is an extremely rare white variety grown in Napa Valley and is a grape that is better known in parts of Spain and Portugal. Out of some 1,200+ Napa Valley wineries or producers we have personally met with, we are only aware of several other Napa wineries producing wine from this variety from grapes grown in Napa Valley. And the Fleury Albariño may be the only mountain planting of this variety in all of Napa Valley. The grapes are grown on their Deer Park property located off of Mund Road on the way up to Howell Mountain. 2015 was their first vintage. The Glass Fire in 2020 significantly burned this part of Napa Valley including through their vineyard. The vines survived but production was severely stinted and no Albariño was produced for several years.

The 2019 Fleury Estate Winery Fleurty Albarino is medium gold in color; shows aromas of ripe Golden delicious apple, honeysuckle and as the bouquet breathes further, hints of grapefruit. Creamy and rounded. Soft is the word we immediately chose to describe the wine’s texture. The palate offers flavors of mandarin, lime, kiwi and green apple. Shows a good acid balance but not a bracing acidity that we have noticed in wines of this variety growing in cooler regions. No tartness. And Fleurty is a cute ‘play’ on the family last name.

The 2023 Fleury The F in Pink Rosé of Merlot is a combination of deep salmon and deep pink in color; on the bouquet there are berry aromas including of strawberry and raspberry with additional layers of dried flowers, violets (we had to break out our Le Nez du Vin set to be sure) and a scent that reminds us of cranberry sauce from family gatherings years ago. The bouquet is highly distinctive and we would like to think we could identify this in a blind tasting of other Napa Valley rosé wines from the same vintage. The palate offers flavors of strawberry, red cherry, raspberry, pomegranate, ruby grapefruit and like the bouquet, cranberry. This is not a light rosé; it offers a creamy and rounded texture and a light spicy kiss that we perceived and felt as oak tannins lingering on the finish. Richly flavored. While tasting this wine, the first thought that came to mind in terms of pairing was seafood, perhaps seared ahi tuna or a shrimp ceviche.

Reds
The 2021 Fluery Estate Winery Napa Valley Rocket Juice, not to be confused with Caldwell Vineyard’s Rocket Science bottling, is a proprietary red blend that tends to be high octane (as the name would indicate) and a crowd pleaser. The blend changes every year but typically includes Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet reveals attractive and ripe scents of blackberry, boysenberry, dark cherry, mulberry, cassis and lavender with plenty of complementary oak influences including dark chocolate, old cedar, assorted baking spices, coffee grinds and mocha. The palate is built upon the back of a bright, almost sharp acidity, dark fruit and barrel influences. Its flavors include dark cherry, ripe plum, blackberry and boysenberry. It is intensely flavored but without an intensity of texture; instead the tannins are tumbled, gravelly and lightly grainy. This wine finishes lifted, and dark and savory with lasting notes of dried herbs, crushed pink peppercorn and toasted oak. Our first thought when enjoying this bottling was to pair it with BBQ pork spare ribs covered in a dry spicy rub.

The 2018 Fleury Estate Winery The F in Red Proprietary Red Wine Blend is medium to deep purple in color; offers a showy bouquet with aromatics of dark fruit and dark cedar. Savory with notes of pepper and some meatiness. Spicy plum. Blackberry. As the wine opens the bouquet reveals notes of brown chocolate, mocha and espresso. The acid clearly shows on the palate, lingering, especially on the finish with a berry and red cherry tartness. The tannins offer a medium grip and are well integrated – there are no sharp edges here. Features a juicy, dark and savory finish with notes of cedar plank. Offers plenty of oak both on the bouquet and the palate – which dissipates somewhat given time in the glass. Still has some years ahead of it. If we had to guess the dominant variety in this wine based on the initial aromatics, we would say it is Syrah, but we know that they do not grow this variety.

The F in Red label is covered with various font types of the letter F. The story goes that the family could not decide on which font worked best for this wine, so Brian simply decided to showcase all their efforts by silk screening numerous fonts around the entire bottle. And they chose a careful spelling of the name – a play on a name with much a more profane connotation.

The Howell Mountain BDX (their play on the word Bordeaux) is a red blend in which Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety. The 2010 Fleury Estate Winery Howell Mountain BDX shows warm and inviting aromas including blackberry, mocha and dessert spices on the bouquet. On the palate offers notes of plum and cherry along with higher fruit tones. Firm (but not grippy) tannins anchor a very long finish. Big but balanced, this is a good steak wine. Only 200 cases were produced. This wine has been on the wine list at the 3-star Michelin rated French Laundry in Yountville.

During select years, Fleury sets aside barrels of wine to make into brandy; these are wines that don’t fit into their portfolio for whatever reason. They use some of this brandy to fortify their Zinfandel Port-styled wine. Dessert wine lovers take note: their 2005 Zinfandel Port is an exceptional wine delivering a richness of flavor, aroma and sugar.

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Total annual production is roughly around 2,500 cases per year but has been as high as 4,000 cases per year. Membership to their allocation list offers a number of unique perks and benefits including access to their various vineyard properties. The wines are primarily sold direct to consumer but are also sold through several online retailers including Sommsation and the Benchmark Wine Group. And Fleury participates in a limited number of events each year including golf focused gatherings.

Pop a cork on a Fleury bottle and one will see the line, “100% good juice”. The image of the fleur-de-lis on all their bottles is an homage to Fleury, with the fleur referring to flower in French. For more information, to purchase current release wines, to become an allocation member, to join their mailing list or to schedule a tasting, please visit: www.fleurywinery.com

Wines

Miscellaneous

Original barrel room