WILL SUCCESS SPOIL DAN PETROSKI?

Gallo Went into His Pocket But Not to His Head

Massican winemaker Dan Petroski enjoying his own bounty at his “office and tasting room” at Bistro Don Giovanni, Napa, November 2025

Damn you, Dan Petroski!

I’m a journalist, who’s supposed to be unbiased and not fall prey to your nice, friendly, smart, genuine ways. But I fell into your trap. You had me at “I did the thing you aren’t supposed to do and I named my wine that people can’t pronounce. I use grapes, absolutely people can’t pronounce. And I’m not out there holding out my brand like a hammer. And there’s no pictures of me on social media.”

Despite the fact, that you let me take your picture for this newsletter and despite the fact, that I love your wines (Petroski makes only white wines) and despite the fact you sold your brand to what I always thought of as the Evil Empire, I came away respecting you even more. Which makes it all the harder to be impartial.

So, here we were last week in Petroski’s “office” and “tasting room” since he has neither; nor vineyards. We’re at Don Giovanni just north of the city of Napa, a bistro that has long been the seen-and-be-seen scene for Napa Valley’s winemakers, vintners and vainglorious winery barons. He invites me to sit at a banquette. At first I opt for the seat that’ll put my back to the entrance; thinking he’d want to alight in the opposite seat, which would enable him to be noticed by his colleagues and any tourists who might recognize him. Petroski immediately supersedes and takes the seat away from the door and from where only the top of his graying head is visible.

It’s immediately clear that Petroski – 52 years of age and from Italian roots on his mom’s side, who grew up in my hometown of Brooklyn – is not one of the latter delineated characters. Although I’m wondering along with everyone else, about how much of a boatload of shekels Gallo gave him.

Which has enabled Petroski to emerge from the pupa stage after 14 years, and fly to places he’s only dreamed of. BG (BeforeGallo), he most assuredly -- amongst the cognoscenti anyway -- got by due to his personality, his guile and egalitarian worldview, and his idiosyncratic wines. To finally becoming the guy who now seems unfettered to make wine he’s always wanted to make. And to make much more of it.

That freedom and the dough, make me wonder if he was this nice and this earnest (no pun) since before the windfall came his way. My journalistic instinct tells me he was this way, only now more people will be let in on the full materialization.

As example, when I take the reporters’ shot to have the audacity to ask him how much Gallo paid him, he immediately retorts – rightly and kindly I might add – “That’s a rude question.” But just as soon, softens his non-answer further by saying, “You can figure it out. The numbers are there.” But I’m not that smart, otherwise Gallo would’ve by now bought me out and put me to work down in the room where I’d be charged with churning out content writing things like, “I like Dan Petroski”.

All I know is, Massican (kinda like it’s spelled, MASS a kin) went from 7 thousand cases to about 13K in about 2 1/4 years. The near-term goal is to ratchet it up to 17K.

Which leaves Petroski only two years and nine months (for a total of five as per the initial agreement) to decide if he’ll go out on his own again. Albeit he’s undoubtedly buoyed by the money and newly enhanced confidence to stick with Gallo. By all indications to me, he’ll keep throwing his lot in with one of the biggest wine companies in the world.

“If I named my wine ‘Petroski’ would Gallo have bought the brand?,” he begins describing his unabashed happiness with his current situation. “Would I even have sold it?” But when Joe Gallo told him, “There’s a white wine movement coming and you’re ahead of it,” he was sold, and he did. Tossing in, “There’s not a single person at Gallo I wouldn’t want to have a beer with …”

At which point over fried olives and pizza he reveals, “I almost sold to LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). They were interested but the pandemic got in the way.”

I believe thus far, he’s in good hands with Gallo and are covered in cashmere gloves not made by LVMH.

“… I’m not an employee of Gallo, I’m a consultant,” he explains. “They’ve given me the keys to the Ferrari and I’m fuckin’ going.” For good measure he revels in the fact that Joe Gallo told him, “You’re a winemaker who also knows business.”

All of which has allowed him to take those gloves off and free him up.

“I know how to make it work and put something delicious in the bottle,” he tells me. “It’s been a fun ride. … I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to accomplish. I’ve done it all and (there’s nothing) I need to achieve. I want to make wine more accessible and affordable. (His wines are priced at $24-$60, reasonable considering their quality, their unique attributes of low alcohol, excellent acidity and welcomed salinity; and the high-rent neighborhoods from where his grapes are sourced.)

“Massican is supposed to be accessible,” Petroski declares with true sincerity.

So, when August of 2027 comes around, marking the end of the first contract, will Petroski re-up with Gallo? “I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t (continue),” he surmises. But if he walks away, he hints at where he might end up: “I’d live in the south of France.”

Massican’s Dan Petroski — a genuine guy — salutes his constituents

***

THE MASSICAN WINES

2024 ANNIA ($32)

(Ribolla Gialla 42%, Tocai Friulano 35%, Chardonnay 23%, Pinot Bianco 6%)

11.8 ABV

Anise and melon aromas, balanced with tart fruit, salinity with great acidity.

2024 GEMINA ($38)

(Falanghina 49%, Greco 45%, Fiano 6%)

12.4 ABV

So bright with that great acid, and that unique and positive residual saline taste.

2024 CHARDONNAY Hyde Vineyard, Napa Carneros ($60 but sold out)

13.6 ABV

A bit of oak rounds the wine but doesn’t detract but makes the wine more elegant; and with those telltale palate cleansers of acidity and salinity.