Massican 'Annia' White California 2022

“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 laden with creamy richness nor beset by savory funk. Words like “clean” and “pure” come to mind. Saltiness appears. So does bright, relentless fruit.”

— Esther Mobley, SF Chronicle

This excerpt comes from Esther Mobley’s 2017 Winemaker of the Year profile of Dan Petroski, who is making some of the best expressions of Italian whites in America, if not the entire world. The spark for this project was a few seasons of work spent in Sicilian wine cellars, followed by a move out to California where he eventually landed a job at the prolific Larkmead Vineyards. The Massican line, however, is a deeper passion - highlighting the potential of white Italian varietals in California. The ‘Annia’ is Massican’s flagship cuvée, with each vintage garnering effusive praise from critics and casual drinkers alike. The 2021 is a blend of 41% tocai friulano, 33% ribolla gialla, and 26% chardonnay sourced from vineyards throughout Napa Valley. Merging floral aromas of lemon, peach, and apple blossom with beeswax and wet stone, it yields a lively palate bursting with green apple, lemon, white peach, and defined notes of slate and salt. Vibrant acidity provides lift to layers of fruit and mineral, while the lingering finish evokes sea-spray-kissed rocks.