Massican 'Gemina' Napa Valley White Blend 2023

Profile & Story

Massican was founded by Dan Petroski, whose path to winemaking began in New York working for TIME and Sports Illustrated before an MBA at NYU. A year interning in Sicily at Valle dell'Acate redirected him toward wine, and he went on to spend nearly fifteen years at Larkmead, becoming winemaker there in 2012 and establishing himself as a leading producer of Napa Valley Cabernet. Alongside that work he launched Massican as a white-wine-only project, an ode to the Mediterranean and to the young, fresh white wines he drank while living in Italy. Petroski favors little intervention during fermentation, using native or cultured yeasts to produce fresh, bright wines with minimal sulfites and no added sugar; his accolades include San Francisco Chronicle's Winemaker of the Year (2017), Food & Wine's Drinks Innovator (2022), and VinePair's Winemaker of the Year (2024). Today Massican produces five wines from ten grape varieties across sixteen California North Coast vineyards, the majority farmed organically. Gemina takes its name from Aminea Gemina, an ancient Greek grape variety planted in Italy around the year 600 and considered the DNA equivalent of today's Greco. The 2023 bottling blends 60% Greco Bianco, 23% Falanghina and 17% Fiano, all native Campanian varieties, sourced from 100% organically farmed vineyards (no glyphosate used) in Dunnigan Hills (38%), Clarksburg (34%) and Sonoma (28%), and fermented in 76% neutral French oak, 12% stainless steel and 12% concrete egg.