JamesSuckling Interviews: Dan Petroski

JamesSuckling Interviews features innovative and influential winery owners, winemakers and industry notables representing the new generation that is shaping tastes, trends and techniques in the greater wine world. 

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Since founding Massican, his Napa “white wines only” winery in 2009, winemaker Dan Petroski has been unwavering in not only producing low alcohol, food-driven and fresher styles of chardonnay and Italian varietal blends of falanghina, tocai friulano and more, but also on maintaining fair pricing for more inclusive access to California’s fine wines. An outspoken thought leader on the future of winegrowing and wine consumption, Petroski originally left a career in New York magazine publishing to pursue his passion for wine, first working on a vineyard in Sicily and then joining Larkmead Winery in Napa. He currently serves on the board of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers as chair of the Industry Issues Committee and Napa Green, a global leader in sustainable winegrowing certification.

JamesSuckling.com’s Susan Kostrzewa talked with Dan about how he has maintained autonomy after his recent transition into Gallo’s Luxury Wine Group, why he thinks Napa pinot grigio is his future, the sweet spot of fine wine pricing and how taking a less defensive view of next-gen consumption can set the wine industry up for success in the years to come. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Since its founding in 2009, Massican has been a “white wines-only” winery. Can you talk about your own efforts to put Napa white wine on the global map, and how your style goals may be different than what Napa whites were known for in the past?

Massican was founded on this, and 15 years into it, is still the only white wine-only winery in Napa Valley. I was yearning for the Mediterranean-style white wines that I grew up with in the wine industry, because my first year in wine [2005-2006] I was living in Sicily. And a lot of the wines that we were drinking at that point in time were white wines. So coming back to America, getting my foothold in Sonoma County and then officially in Napa Valley, I was knee-deep in drinking pinot noir, chardonnay. That was the era of big, flavor-driven pinot … a lot of new French oak chardonnay.

I was learning how to make cabernet sauvignon, but I was like, I can't drink this in the evening. It’s a very Mediterranean climate and very warm. I didn't understand why I couldn't drink a lighter, brighter, fresher style of California and Napa Valley [white wine] during that time. So I set off to see if that was possible. I was very fortunate because a lot of my peers in the industry felt the same way.

Look at the statistical data in California. In 1996, there was more chenin blanc planted in California than cabernet sauvignon. There's a history of white wine. The Judgment of Paris brought in Napa Valley chardonnay as a spotlight grape variety and wine. The phylloxera epidemic in the 1980s got everyone thinking about how to focus the energy and effort into what Napa Valley terroir can do for the future. [In doing that] we left a lot of our [broader] white winemaking and white wine drinking of the pre-1990s behind us.

Gallo’s Luxury Wine Group announced its acqusition of Massican on Aug. 31, 2023 for an undisclosed sum. How did that come about, and how does your vision align with Gallo? Have you maintained your personal winemaking vision and brand philosophy in the transition?

We're 11 months into our honeymoon period. But we were dating a lot before that. And all the conversations I had with Joe Gallo during this process was about vision. In the beginning, when we had a drink together, he was rooting me on and cheering for me because I had this crazy vision to be Napa Valley's only white wine winery and to take on the Italian pinot grigio market in America. I think that's what you get in the California wine industry. We all are rooting for each other. And then the second time we met, he was more, “I love the philosophy, I love the ideas. I love everything you're doing. How can I help you?” And so it's always been this idea of what we can do together.

So you’ve maintained autonomy?

They've literally said to do whatever you want to do, just keep doing what you're doing: "You haven't stepped in the wrong direction yet; here's a white wine movement coming; you're ahead of it; just keep moving; we'll give you everything you need to do what you're doing." And that's been the relationship for the first 11 months. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. We're going into the 2024 harvest in a couple of weeks and feeling better than ever about growing in a time when a lot of people are pumping the brakes on the future because of the challenges in the marketplace. We're going to be growing this year over 30 percent.

READ MORE NAPA VALLEY CABS SHINE IN 2021: APEX VINTAGE IN A ‘REDEMPTION’ YEAR

That infrastructure and stability is a rarity in unpredictable times.

Gallo can offer opportunity for scale. And it's not only scale of a supply chain and packaging, which is going to kind of bring my cost down. It's also scale of the amount of vineyards they own. It's a scale of the amount of wineries they own. It's the opportunity to press my grapes at a wine facility that's made for white wine or have access to Italian white grape varieties in regions that I don't have access to right now in the state of California. I was a solo operator, in a car, driving around, doing whatever I could to make my dream a reality.

And then behind the scenes, dealing with distribution networks and dealing with cash flow and dealing with capital expenditures and growth. When you're doing that [alone], it's a strain on your anxieties about cash flow, on how far you can go to push yourself. I was fortunate to only work in 10 or 12 markets, but peers of mine are working in 60 markets globally. And that's a very difficult thing to do as a solo operator. So from a tactical perspective, it's been the greatest thing ever for Massican and its enactment of our combined vision, which is to make the greatest white wines in California. We also want to make these wines more accessible, affordable.

You have a passion for innovation and discovery, in particular experimenting with Italian varieties and new approaches to California chardonnay. What new projects or wines are on the horizon that you’re excited about?

Pinot grigio is our future. Or at least my future. I believe 50 percent of the pinot grigio sold in America is Italian pinot grigio – 700,000 cases of that is Santa Margherita, and over a million cases of that is Cavit. There’s an opportunity for us to grow the marketplace, to say there’s an affordable, more interesting, more complex, made-in-California version of the wines you love already, at the same price or more affordable. The idea is for a style of pinot grigio that is lighter, brighter, fresher, with citrusy florals. In the past, I thought, how the hell do I think I can do this [when others like Bob Mondavi of La Famiglia and George Vare of Luna Vineyards have failed in the past]? The family that could do it is the Gallo family. They've been around for 90 years. They’re the ones that have the resources, they have the network, they have the ability to put these wines in front of people at a reasonable price.

As you’ve embarked on new projects and varieties, why continue to focus on chardonnay? Do you still think there’s a story to be unearthed and told about Napa chardonnay?

I love chardonnay. It’s probably my favorite grape variety as a consumer of wine. So I am all in on being able to say I make something that I love. I love all my wines equally, but having the ability to work with the Hyde vineyard, which is one of the most iconic vineyard sites not only in Napa Valley or Carneros but in California in general, I had this opportunity to do something special and unique with it. That vineyard is the stage for giants in the industry, from Paul Hobbs and Andy Smith and Steve Kistler and John Kongsgaard and the list goes on and on. And beyond that, it’s a really wonderful opportunity for me to show the Massican drinker that you can drink a delicious, iconic-vineyard chardonnay at a price that you can afford.

Also today, Napa Valley chardonnay is becoming one of the rare wines of California because a lot of the chardonnay that is planted in Napa Valley is consumed by our sparkling wine houses, the Chandons, the Mumms, the Schramsbergs. They're putting these wines into sparkling form, making delicious versions of it. But it's actually eating up a lot of good chardonnay for still wine production. I look at Napa Valley chardonnay as a very small segment of the wine production population of chardonnay. And so to be a part of that small group that is holding on is wonderful. And to make a style that is antithetical to what California chardonnay has been known for in the last 15 years or so feels good as well because I just think about it as a Massican chardonnay, not as a buttery Napa chardonnay.

You’ve been vocal about keeping wine pricing fair. Are fine wine prices still too high overall?

I think that a lot of the fine wine pricing speaks to an audience of people who we believe are specifically seeking out what we're producing, as opposed to those who are still just simply trying to enjoy a delicious glass or a bottle of wine. For me, working with varieties that people don't know, like tocai friulano or ribolla gialla or falanghina, I have to remove the gate. One of the things with the Gallo deal that was really important was pricing, because in the market nationwide, some of the Massican wines are as cheap as they were when I released the brand in 2009, 2010. Fifteen years later, with all the inflation, with all the increases in valuations of Napa and Sonoma County land, prices are almost the same as when we launched. And we’re thinking for the next 10 years to keep in that strata of pricing. As we scale, our costs will come down and we don't need to raise our prices, we can just put back into the marketplace. I'm not saying to discount your wines, just price them fairly and bring people along for the ride. I know we can't do that in some instances because of land value, because of production value. But the reality of it is, we have to do our best to make sure that we are talking to the biggest group of people available to us, and I don't think we do that very well in the wine trade.

You serve on the board of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers as the chair of the Industry Issues Committee. What would you say are some of the region’s biggest challenges as far as climate, wildfire and water usage are concerned?

We think about it as the four elements: water, fire, air and soil. We think about soil health. It's how we farm, what we put into our soils that is going to create resiliency for these vines to deal with [climate change]. Then the unpredictable threat of wildfire, and the availability of clean water. And then there are a lot of things that actually tie into those things, like land use and regulations with regards to not only to preserve Napa Valley, but what California wants to do to lead the way to be the most forward thinker when it comes to the changing climate. And Mother Nature's continuously changing. So our laws are continuously changing. We shouldn't make one change and expect it to last a lifetime. And with all that comes the other realities of pest control, with fire insurance that's unattainable right now because people are afraid to insure properties where there's potential for wildfire.

And then you think about the climate-changing world, and you think about how we want to protect our workforce. If it's over 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside, no one should be in the field. No one should be outside working without cover. So we have rules and regulations about not exposing our workforce to extreme conditions. We are working on a daily basis to figure out how we can become more sustainable, not only as an organization of grape growers and grower members, but as an industry within our small slice of the wine industry, which is Napa Valley.

Are producers on board with the kind of changes you’re discussing?

A big part of that is going to be the impact on future economic viability, because a wildfire can take your entire business out. It can take your library inventory out. The lack of water can lower your yields. Pests could wipe out your crop. The heat could damage your crop; the heat could keep your people out of the vineyard and take the human equation part out of the industry. But what I've learned from my peers is the best person to give a challenge to is a farmer. It doesn't necessarily need to be innovation, doesn't need to be technology. It could just be understanding row direction as it changes over time, understanding canopies and understanding what's best for your vine growth with shade and wind flow. I always joke about the fact that when I was at Larkmead, we planted seven grape varieties for the future change of climate and three of them were varieties that were planted on the property 50 years ago. They were the right varieties at the wrong time.

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How can the wine trade communicate more authentically and effectively to consumers in the face of so much competition from other segments, as well as the anti-alcohol messaging that’s gaining momentum?

I welcome the fact that we're all drinking with more diversity in our lives. That is something that's very European. If you and I were having this conversation in-person in Rome, we’d  probably be drinking a Campari soda at 4pm, and then we roll into dinner and have a glass of wine. And then maybe after dinner, we have a digestif. That diversity already exists in the life that we've lived in some of our travels. And now that that's happening in our own lives around us, we get all pissed off that someone's having a White Claw or a High Noon before dinner, and then maybe having a glass of wine instead of a bottle and then drinking whiskey in the evening. There’s an evolution of beverage consumption that actually tracks really well with food. I'm not one to say that wine is the only beverage we need to drink; wine is one of the beverages we need to drink as a as part of the life that you want to live.

We went through a period of unrivaled growth and a period without a lot of competition in a space that had so much diversity to begin with. And now that there's a little bit of more competition, and people are tending to go elsewhere and the competition is cheaper but adds more bang for your buck, more diversity. So let's do our jobs. If we want to be great producers of wine, we need to start learning how to tell that story. And I don't think we're ever going to win back market share in spirits or beer or whatever category.  I don't think we should be working toward that, but toward making a viable and successful business that has a place on the table for a consumer that appreciates what you do, and if you can't make that economic business model work, then you need to do something else. I hate to shatter your dreams, but then you need to do something else.

Should we use a category like food as a model?

On platforms like TikTok, you can go and find recipes. I was cooking during the pandemic without a recipe, watching a 32-second TikTok video. Shit like this has been happening on YouTube for over a decade now; two decades. And the wine space has had a really hard time doing that because we have certain laws that prohibit us to advertise and market in that way.

However, we still have the opportunity to get in front of people as part of this. We're 15 years behind the food space but we're on the table now and I think this is the most important part. If you want to put your wine up against a martini, you're going to lose that battle, you know, 99 out of 100 times with the new consumer, because we’re a product that comes in basically four forms: white wine, red wine, pink wine or sparkling wine. And Instagram doesn't help us show what that the product itself truly is other than those four shades of color. Our bottles tend to be more reverential than they tend to be fun and cool and interesting, like the beer industry or spirits industry. We’ve handcuffed ourselves at times out of respect for that tradition. So if we're going to stay that authentic self and be respectful to tradition, we need to get into a strong space of talking about wine that is meant for the table, as opposed to saying the only way you can experience our wines is to come to our vineyard, sit on our rocking chairs, look at our vines and become part of our mailing list. That dog don't hunt. That's not happening anymore.

– Susan Kostrzewa