massican
Dan Petroski
Napa Valley - california
story…
Founded in 2009 by Dan Petroski with a mind to produce a white wine similar to those he had fallen in love with from Italian wines, specifically from the north eastern region of Friuli. Originally Dan intended on creating one wine each year, a blend of blocks from his source vineyards, but after fermenting the juice and several blending trials he realized that the Sauvignon Blanc he had sourced for his first wine really didn’t work with the other varieties, so his first vintage ended up being two wines. A white blend called Annia, named after his mother; and a single varietal bottling of Sauvignon Blanc. The winery name itself comes from the southern Italian mountain range, Monte Massico, which is located in the Campania region where Dan’s ancestors were from.
Dan currently produces five different bottlings of white wine, all are in a style reflective of the great white wines of the Friuli region in Italy. Four of his whites are produced in California from fruit grown in the Napa Valley, and one is a collaborative bottling produced in Italy with his friends at Ronco del Gnemiz. Dan more recently started producing a small run of dry and sweet vermouth based on historic Italian recipes, as well as a very small beer production that is made in collaboration with his good friends at Westbrook Brewing in Charleston, SC.
philosophy…
Drawing on his time in Italy Dan quickly realized that even though Napa enjoyed a Mediterranean-like climate there was a real lack of locally produced crisp & fresh white wines that he found himself craving in the moderate climate of the Napa Valley. Dan’s focus and vision for his Massican wines can really all be relayed back to that connection; a desire to produce complex, yet refreshing white wines to compliment the warm sunny days that are so common in the valley.
All of the fruit is whole cluster pressed to either stainless steel or neutral oak for fermentation, always done with native/ambient yeasts. The wines then age in a mixture of stainless tank, stainless barrel and oak barrel. Some portion of all the bottlings spends time in oak, mostly neutral but there is a small amount of new oak that is employed. All decisions are made based on the vintage and bottling that the wine is destined for, there is not exact recipe of sorts that Dan follows. Malolactic fermentations occurs naturally but in general most of Dan’s wines do not go through Malo, more commonly they only achieve partial malo.
Vineyards…
Dan sources the fruit for his Massican line from mostly older vine vineyards throughout the Napa Valley. Many of the sites he has worked with since the first vintage, including: Nichelini Vineyard, Vare Vineyard, & Juliana Vineyard. Others like the famous Hyde Vineyard & Bowland were later additions, but no less important and exciting to work with.
Nichelini Vineyard - Chiles Valley in Eastern Napa Valley
originally planted by the Nichelini family in 1884 after the family moved to the valley | after World War II the family began to diversify their plantings to meet the demand of a growing white wine culture | Dan sources Tocai Friulano from this historic vineyard, the vines were planted in 1946 and have been part of Massican since its inception in 2009
Vare Vineyard - Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley
planted by the legendary George Vare in 1995 for his Luna Vineyards label that was highly focused on Italian varietals. In 2000 George brought back cuttings of Ribolla Gialla bud wood from the visionary producer Josko Gravner that George hid in his wife’s suitcase | the Ribolla Gialla that makes up a large portion of the Annia bottling comes from this unique vineyard | Vare Vineyard has the only known plantings of Ribolla in the US
Juliana Vineyard - Pope Valley in Eastern Napa Valley
this is a 3,200-acre-ranch located on the backside of Howell Mountain, only about 10% of the ranch is planted to vineyards | the Sauvignon Blanc that is used by Massican was originally planted in 1993 to be part of the famous Mondavi Napa Valley Fumé Blanc | fortunately for us and for Dan, the Mondavi contract for that fruit expired in 2009 and has been used for the Massican single varietal Sauvignon Blanc ever since
Bowland Vineyard - Russian River Valley
owned, planted, and tended by the celebrated vineyard farmer, Chris Bowland, who has overseen vineyard for such clients as Williams Selyem, DuMol, Bedrock and Carlisle | his personal vineyard was initially planted to Zinfandel but in the late 2000’s he began converting it over to white wine varietals, starting in 2010 with Ribolla Gialla & Greco and then eventually Tocai Friulano in 2013 | Dan sources Tocai Friulano & Ribolla Gialla for his Annia bottling from Chris as well as some Greco for the Gemina bottling
Hyde Vineyard - Carneros
perhaps the most well known and famous site that Dan works with, originally established by Larry Hyde in 1979, who was one of the pioneers of viticulture in the Carneros region | the vineyard is planted primarily to Chardonnay & Pinot Noir and fruit from this legendary site and grower has been used by some of the most sought after producers of Chardonnay & Pinot Noir in all of California; including: Paul Hobbs, Kistler, & Ramey | Dan has been working with Hyde Vineyards Chardonnay since 2009, originally just for the Annia bottling, however in 2014 he released his first single varietal, vineyard designate bottling of Hyde Chardonnay
