Freddy R. Troya

9.2

Massican – White Blend 2016
Napa Valley, California – USA 🇺🇸

Overview
Massican has become Napa’s benchmark for Italian-inspired whites, and the 2016 vintage shows why. Crafted from an unconventional blend of Ribolla Gialla (60%), Tokai Friulano (31%), and Chardonnay (9%), it brings a Friulian soul to California sunshine. This is not your typical Napa white—rather, it’s a wine with structure, texture, and an old-world sense of ageability.

Aromas & Flavors
On the nose, layers of pear, yellow apple, chamomile, and almond skin mingle with subtle honey and dried herbs. The palate leans savory and complex: citrus oil, quince, and stone fruit wrapped in saline minerality, finishing with a faint oxidative lift that adds intrigue.

Mouthfeel
Medium-bodied with a broad, waxy texture that still feels fresh thanks to bright acidity. The oxidative tension on the back end gives it depth and a slightly nutty echo that lingers.

Winemaking Notes
Dan Petroski’s minimalist approach—native yeast fermentation, neutral oak, and stainless steel—keeps the focus on texture and authenticity, allowing Ribolla Gialla and Friulano to shine in an unusual Napa setting.

Food Pairing
Ideal with richer seafood (lobster, scallops), roasted chicken, creamy risottos, or alpine cheeses. Its savory edges make it versatile across Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.

Verdict
A fascinating white blend that breaks the mold of Napa Valley. Complex, age-worthy, and distinctive—showing that California can excel beyond Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. A bottle for explorers who appreciate texture as much as fruit.

Personal Highlight
Massican remains one of my favorite Napa whites, because it dares to break tradition. This 2016 shows the brilliance of Ribolla Gialla and Friulano outside their native Friuli—delivering a wine with personality, depth, and an unforgettable edge. Cheers! — a month ago

Vanessa

8.9

Château Yvonne, ‘L’île Quatre Sous,’ is 100% Cabernet Franc from Saumur Champigny AOC in the Saumur region of Loire Valley, France. The Vintage 2018. The ABV is 14.5%. 🏰 🍷

👁 This wine is deep ruby with medium intensity of youthful aromas. 👃 The aromas offer blackberry bramble, plum, black cherry, and fresh fig, also, green bell pepper and vegetal notes along with fennel, wet earth, forest floor, cured meat, leather, and Brett.

👄 It is dry, has medium acidity, a medium body, high alcohol, and medium tannins. The flavors are consistent with the nose and the finish is medium.

👏 This wine is savory and rustic – it has a sauvage (wild) quality and fresh black fruit notes to balance all of that organic, earthiness. It is multi-faceted and delicious. 😍

In addition to using organic and biodynamic growing practices, Winemaker Mathieu Vallée pursues a minimalist vinification approach, designed to highlight the grape’s innate quality, purity, and expression.

For example, after being hand-harvested, this wine was fermented with native yeast in concrete vats and is un-fined and unfiltered with no additions besides minimal sulfur dioxide. Despite its youth, there is notable sediment in the bottle. — 4 years ago

with Deked1

John And Jen Leonard

9.3

I like Paso Robles more than some other micros that’s my baseline. Consumed with a Sunday steak dinner. Tasted first. Surprisingly ready 2020: aroma more tobacconist or saddlery rather than orchard. smooth not tannic, but with underlying structure. Fruit flavors and notes are deeper underneath, plums, currants, Maybe dried cherries ? Fully ripened fruit neither just-picked floral nor over ripe sweet. Fruit was not forward, rather the base for notes my wife and I were scrambling to put “wine critic” descriptions to: pencil shavings minerals tobacco graphite maybe a touch of white pepper ? No vegetal notes at all. A pretty substantial wine; weight to it with mouth coating glycerine viscosity but no tannic pucker We sensed it more front of mouth and absolutely in the back of mouth and throat going down “Masculine wine” said my wife who “really liked” vs my “loved” Great steak wine that matches perfectly a minimalist prep of the meat solid flavor galore, but not tons of conflicting and competing notes The grape speaks as sometimes should the steak Bought on special I hope to get more ! — 2 years ago

Ely Cohn

9.3

Whiff of fresh cherry pastry. Strudel hot out the oven with a sidecar of cream. Sliced with the side of a tiny spoon, metal clanking to porcelain. Terrantino stuff.

Zero dosage, but not the type of Champagne that is interesting in a restrained and minimalist way. This is fully fruity and fully bready and suggestive of sweet without any actual sweet. Concentrated intense tart flavors of raspberry and cherry that go on and on. — 4 years ago

Will Stanley

9.1

Zesty and herbaceous, the 2017 Sancerre Les Chailloux by Claude Riffault sports a nose of lemon peel, garden mint, limestone, flint, and a touch of tomato leaf. The palate is juicy and vibrant, characterised by Granny Smith apple, high acidity, and a depth of flavour that suggests some (very gentle, and successfull) use of oak.

I’m not a great lover of Loire whites, but this is a very good quality Sancerre that should continue to improve with age. The minimalist label and wax seal makes for an attractive bottle. — 5 years ago

Dan R

9.1

Young winemakers making serious noise in the area. I’m following. There’s some funk that blows off quickly and underneath is a chunky, complex and chiseled expression. The terroir really comes through on the edges, slate and mineral. Crushed red fruit and herbs on the mid palate. Could use some time. Very interesting and provocative. Falls somewhere in between old school rusticity and the energy you find in good examples of new school minimalist winemaking. — 5 years ago

Severn G

9.1

1996 | Birthday weekend for my lovely wife.

Slight funk on the nose, but solid, dusty red fruits on the palate. Double decanted with notes at 5H. Complete notes on future bottles. 2006 acquisition with careful storage since.

Paired to USDA Prime Strip Steaks (baseball-cut), Allen Bros. Chicago.

I do enjoy the old, minimalist label showcasing the view of the winery in the hill. — 3 years ago

Sara Thomas

9.0

Nice Syrah. Acidity balances out the ripe fruit. Plum, boysenberry, dried herbs, graphite, violets. — 3 years ago

Will Stanley

9.2

Very floral, perfumed, ethereal - a captivating bouquet. The palate is equally delicate, unmistakably Syrah and quite different to what one might expect from the northern Rhône.

The wine struggles to hold up to lamb, so I think would be best suited to hearty vegetable dishes - roasted root veg and mushrooms, perhaps.

Hard to know whether this is just a little young - if some savoury notes develop with age this could transform into a quite brilliant Syrah. — 4 years ago

Martinez

9.7

Lean, minimalist. 100% Cariñena (Carignan) from vines planted in 1902, some of the first vineyards planted after phylloxera. Austere nose, with some hints of dark chocolate. Superb structure and incredible minerality (it tastes like rock, in fact roots go as deep as 50-60 ft into the llicorella soils). Vertical, very light mouthfeel. Very long, subtle spicy finish.


— 5 years ago