Alcohol: 12.8%
Grape(s): 100% Chardonnay
Location: Napa Valley, California, USA
Tasting Notes: Fermented and aged in 100% large new oak barrels, this is a tradition-breaking, linear wine from the famous Hyde Vineyard in Carneros. Using Musque clone vines, it produces a slightly floral, peachy, jicama-tasting wine that’s light-bodied, mineral-laden, and energized with acidity.
95 points Decanter: Winemaker Dan Petroski sources this fruit from the eponymous Hyde Vineyard, one of California's most famous and historic Chardonnay sites. It was founded by Larry Hyde in Carneros in 1979; the Musque clone of Chardonnay that Dan uses in this wine was planted in 1992. Honeyed aromatics show a tremendous depth bolstered by such lively acidity and brilliant saline character with seaspray lifting honey-drizzled peaches. The palate shows as Old World; fresh nectarines, smoky grilled lemon slices and a glorious sea salt are cut by a filigreed minerality that carries elegantly into the finish.
The Domain: With its Mediterranean-inspired lineup of white wines, the Massican brand evokes the breezy, “La Dolce Vita” feeling of summer on the Italian coast. But despite its effortlessly cool appearance, the Napa Valley winery’s standout success is the result of years of tireless hard work and thoughtful planning by its founder, Dan Petroski.
Brooklyn-born Petroski started his career in New York working in sales and marketing at Time Inc. During his tenure at the company, he fell in love with every aspect of magazine publishing, but through exploring the city’s prominent dining scene, he also found himself drawn to the wine world. In 2005, Petroski was offered an intriguing new opportunity in the media realm. Faced with a career-changing decision, he instead opted to bail on the New York 9-5 altogether and pursue his interest in wine. So, naturally, he fled to Italy.
After an impactful year working for Sicily’s Valle dell’Acate winery and embracing coastal Italian life, Petroski moved back stateside as a newly minted member of the wine industry. He headed west for a harvest internship at DuMOL in 2006, and just a few months later landed the job as cellar master at Napa’s historic Larkmead Vineyards. Petroski took the opportunity to fully immerse himself in the business, working on the production side, taking shifts in the tasting room, and sitting in on finance and marketing meetings.
As an inherently ambitious and business-minded person (with an MBA from NYU Stern), Petroski started drawing up plans for a winery of his own not long after starting at Larkmead. Entrenched in Cabernet Sauvignon-centric Napa Valley, his original models were based on making classic Napa Cabs — i.e., buying highly sought-after grapes, securing expensive oak barrels, and allowing for an extended period to age the wines. The long-term, capital-intensive approach seemed untenable and near-impossible to execute.
But thinking back to his days of sipping crisp and refreshing white wines in Sicily, Petroski was inspired to flip the Napa winery business model on its head. “What does California not have? Mediterranean-style white wines,” he recalls thinking. At that moment, the idea of Massican began fermenting.
After switching the concept to white wine, the business plan started to make sense. By swapping out Cabernet Sauvignon for more obscure Italian varieties, the projected costs dropped dramatically. And by producing fresh, stainless steel-fermented white wines, the need for pricey barrels and long-term storage disappeared, with a promise of a much faster return on investment.
Petroski’s meticulous preparation finally started taking form, and in 2009 he produced the first vintage of Massican, with 400 cases of white wine, including a bright and herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc and an Italian-inspired blend of Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano, and Chardonnay, named Annia after his mother.
The Sauvignon Blanc received some early luck in its quick rise to fame. While sampling the wine among friends in the valley, the beverage director of the French Laundry noticed its brilliance and offered to buy all 50 cases that Petroski had made that year. Massican’s Sauvignon Blanc earned a spot on the French Laundry’s by-the-glass list for 10 years in a row, which Petroski notes helped amplify the brand and expose a lot of people to the wines.
