Fat Cat Loves Nene 2023

• Profile: Garnet red Grenache with beeswax, red licorice, and strawberry. Dense red fruit palate with mouthwatering finish. Sumptuous and fresh.
• Food Pairing: Grilled lamb, roasted vegetables, charcuterie, soft cheeses
• Serving Temp: 55-60°F

Florèz Wines, founded in 2017 by James Jelks in Corralitos, Santa Cruz County, California, is a boutique natural wine producer creating technically accomplished, site-specific wines from organic and dry-farmed vineyards across California.

James Jelks was born in Santa Cruz and raised in Davis, California—home to one of the world's most prestigious viticulture programs. After attending UC Davis Viticulture & Enology, he spent a decade working in wineries worldwide, including a formative experience at Louis Latour in Burgundy in 2014. That global training—from Burgundy to California, traditional houses to natural wine projects—shaped his rigorous but minimal-intervention approach. In 2017, he established Florèz in a retrofitted apple cold storage building, creating wines that combine old-world discipline with new-world terroir. A 2020 James Beard Award Semi-finalist, Jelks's woodcut labels by tattoo artist Drew Nelson are as distinctive as the wines themselves.

Farming & Cellar: James personally farms several vineyards including Blue Jay and Alaya in the Santa Cruz Mountains—organic, dry-farmed, no-till. Additional fruit comes from partner growers sharing his philosophy, including German Soto's Hunter Hill Vineyard and the historic Enz Vineyard in Lime Kiln Valley. All wines employ native yeast fermentation, no additives except minimal sulfur at bottling for some cuvées (10-20 ppm), and never any fining or filtration. Techniques vary by cuvée—carbonic maceration, whole cluster, direct-press, skin-contact—but the common thread is precision in service of lightness and drinkability.