CoolVines

Italian wines and particularly the whites of Friuli have long fascinated Dan Petroski, the winemaker at Larkmead in Napa. Massican is named after the coastal mountain range of Monte Massico on the southern Italian peninsula of Campania. Monte Massico garnered its mythological wine-fame when Bacchus took refuge in its foothills with a farmer named Falernus. Bacchus was so enamored with his host's generosity that when the man slept, Bacchus cultivated his hillside fields into the most sought after white wine grapes in all of Italy.

Massican Annia an interesting white, which is a combination of 44% Tocai 29% Ribolla Gialla 27% Chardonnay grapes. The Tocai comes from 63 year old vines in the Chiles Valley while the Ribolla comes from the only known planting of this varietal in America. This is the wine that conceptually launched the Massican brand.

The Napa Valley is one of the most highly praised regions in the wine world, and has been ever since the mid-70's (if not the mid-60's for Robert Mondavi and like-minded pioneers) for the quality of its climate, and its seemingly inexhaustible supply of moderate, ideal growing seasons. A region full of climatologically diverse sub-regions, it is a winemaker's paradise, as they are able to harness the potential of so many diverse terroirs within such a relatively small area.