How to describe Dan Petroski’s Massican wines? They’re from California, but somehow don’t taste like it. Ostensibly they’re modeled on the wines of Friuli, in northern Italy, but they don’t taste quite Italian either. The Massican wines are white wines. They’re crisp wines, high in acid. They’re fresh – neither […]
Dan Petroski was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and has the swagger and the accent to prove it. After attending Columbia University where he played football, Dan went to work for Time, Inc. While there, he earned his MBA from NYU and worked his way up the ranks towards […]
Many of the varieties we might consider alt-California have a history in the state that long predates the rise of cabernet and chardonnay. Look no further than the work of Eugene W. Hilgard, one of the great agricultural scientists of the 19th century, who planted and recorded dozens of grape […]
Minerality is the Wine Buzz Word of the Moment, But What Does it Mean Exactly? Some wines, mostly white, have a kind of stoniness. Or mineral character. Or something. The aroma or taste of Chablis can recall the bottom of a box of blackboard chalk (in a good way). The […]
Most Popular Wines in Restaurants Nationwide: To conduct the research for this feature, we ask restaurant buyers to list their ten top-selling wines in order of popularity. We use the total number of mentions a brand accumulates to determine its placement on the list. Sauvignon Blanc: #7 Massican.
Napa Valley Wine Academy: In Episode 9 of our ongoing podcast series, The Stories Behind Wine, we speak to Dan Petroski San Francisco Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year who makes wines for Larkmead Vineyards and Massican Winery. Dan tells us about his fascinating journey to become a winemaker even though […]
2016 Hyde Vineyards: With its sunny citrus fruit, this wine shows impressive freshness in a Napa Valley Chardonnay. The juicy orange flavor is shadowed by some toasty oak character, but overall this is bright, lean and tight, a wine to pour with pan-roasted sand dabs. 91 points. Named “Year’s Best […]
We’re looking at the diversity of white wines available in California beyond Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Grapes like Chenin Blanc and Grenache Blanc, previously used mainly in blends, are now known for aromatic, distinctive and refreshing white wines that are more likely to be bottled solo. The Lang & Reed […]
2016 Annia – Annia is a white blend consisting mostly of Ribolla Gialla with some Tocai Friulano and a dollop of Chardonnay. True to the lean Massican style, Brix at harvest ranged from 19.8° to 21.6°. Fruit was whole-cluster pressed and barrel fermented in French oak, mostly neutral, and some […]
Massican #34. Massican borrows its name from Monte Massico, a coastal mountain in Campania, in southern Italy, where Bacchus himself reportedly once hung out — but the inspiration for its wines comes from the north, from wineries in the Friuli region. Not much more than half a dozen years into […]
