Description
Massican, “Annia” White Wine
The bottle you see here is a Californian white blend, albeit one that is “Mediterranean” in spirit and styling—which is to say, it’s not what most people think of when they think of Californian white wine. It is bracingly fresh, partially oaked, and contains only a small percentage of Chardonnay. It is the flagship bottling from Dan Petroski’s tiny Massican Winery, which is focused entirely on white wine production—making it an outlier in the red-heavy Napa Valley.
Today marks the fourth time we’ve offered this wine shortly after its release into the market, and to me, it’s as momentous an occasion as any new-release allocation we receive around here. “Annia,” Petroski’s Italian-inspired blend of “Tocai” Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, and a splash of Chardonnay, is a California white wine benchmark: It has redefined what’s possible in the Napa Valley and shone light on the profound influence of Italians and Italian grape varieties on the wine culture of California. The critical acclaim (and widespread sommelier support) Petroski has received for his lineup has undoubtedly encouraged other California producers to make more invigorating, acid-driven whites—but if any further encouragement is needed, this 2021 will surely provide it. It’s still rare to encounter a Napa Valley white of such mineral-etched texture, aromatic nuance, and clear potential for aging, so act now before the door closes for another year!
BONUS BUY: For the most hardcore Massican fans out there, we managed to snag a small amount of their 2021 Sauvignon Blanc, which is sourced from Napa’s Juliana Vineyard—once a source for Robert Mondavi’s famed Fumé Blanc. Grab some here before it disappears!
As I’ve noted in previous offeres, Massican whites are staples of savvy restaurant wine lists across the country—they have truly struck a chord with sommeliers looking for food-friendly whites. Up until recently, Dan Petroski had a very demanding “day job” crafting the powerful, critically beloved Cabernets at Napa’s historic Larkmead winery, but now he’s focused solely on Massican. It remains a small-scale operation, producing about 3,000 cases across four bottlings, all of them white. At 1,600 cases, “Annia” is the largest-production item of the four, followed by the Sauvignon Blanc, which, as noted above, is sourced from the site which originally supplied Mondavi’s landmark “Fumé Blanc.”
A devoted student of wine who once worked in magazine publishing, Petroski started getting into wine in the late-1990s and eventually dove in headlong—moving to Italy to apprentice at Sicily’s Valle dell’Acate winery. He moved to California in 2006, landing a harvest internship at DuMol, and from there it was “game on.” He spent 12 years at Larkmead and founded Massican in 2009, naming today’s wine for his Italian mother, Annia. The name Massican refers to Monte Massico in Italy’s Campania region, a historic winemaking area and the land of his ancestors. And while Massican wines have recently come to incorporate “Campanian” grapes such as Greco di Tufo, the principal inspiration for the lineup is the stainless steel-fermented style of white wine perfected in Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the ’90s and early 2000s (the era before skin-contact “orange” whites became fashionable).
The 2021 “Annia” is a blend of “Tocai” Friulano (51%), Ribolla Gialla (33%) and some Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay (16%). The Tocai was originally planted in 1946 by the Nichelini family, in Napa’s easterly Chiles Valley. The Ribolla Gialla, meanwhile, boasts 18+ years of vine age, having been planted by legendary Napa vintner George Vare. If you are surprised that two relatively obscure Italian varieties have been planted in Napa Valley for so long, well, I was, too, but I was not surprised to hear that there’s not that much of either: “Annia” contains 30% of all the Tocai and Ribolla grapes grown in California.
Massican whites are all about modest alcohol levels and minimal oak (this wine is barrel-fermented, but you’d never know it), and the 2021 continues the tradition. Coming in at 12.5% alcohol, it nevertheless displays great concentration and energy in the glass. It has a medium yellow-gold core moving to silver and green at the rim, with perfumed aromas of white peach, apricot, citrus peels, wildflower honey, green herbs, and wet stones. For lovers of the Friulano grape from Friuli-Venezia-Giulia itself, this wine offers California’s most faithful representation: the variety’s distant relation to Sauvignon Blanc is discernible in the aromas, while on the palate the Ribolla Gialla is there to jolt your palate to life. The wine is young and ultra-fresh right now, so decant it at least 30 minutes before serving in all-purpose white wine stems at 50 degrees. Fresh seafood is this wine’s best friend; check out the attached recipe and make sure there are plenty of lemon wedges on hand. This could be your “go-to” white all summer long—provided you stock up now. Enjoy!
