Dan, Janae and Cathy.

Janae Franicevic, co-owner of Sunce Winery is our guest today on Caliornia Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Janae Franicevic describes Sunce Winery as a “brick and mortar” winery. Sunce means “sun” in Croatian. This year she will work her thirty-fourth consecutive harvest.

Sunce Winery has 46 different varietals and average about thirty per year. She calls it a livelihood winery, because the family makes a living from it. Since 1991 they have been in the heart of the Russian River Valley. Most of their production is small lots, 8, 10 or 12 barrels each.

Steve is tasting their French-style Chardonnay. “It will take you back to the old days of Chardonnay.” It’s partial ML, about 25% new oak, mostly French and neutral.

Her husband came to New Orleans from Croatia and worked as a fisherman. He started school after a fishing accident, and earned all the way up to a PhD in Psychology. He was making some wine in the basement while he was working on his dissertation. He served some of that wine to patrons in restaurants where he worked as a wine steward. Fast forward to today and they have won over 100 Gold Medals, in the three biggest wine competitions. Her husband is the winemaker and she sells it. Janae declares that her husband is a genius.

California Wine Country is brought to you by Rodney Strong Vineyards and Davis Bynum Wines.

Janae has brought some Cabernet Franc. They made only two barrels of it. She makes a Dornfelder, which is a rare red wine grape that grows in cooler climates. Blaufrankisch is another cold climate red grape. Dornfelder was developed to address the color issue with wine that wouldn’t ripen in the cold weather. Here it is used to add color to varietals. They make a 100% as a fun wine, but not very serious.

Barbara Barrielle

Barbara Barrielle calls in to talk about the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival which is coming up May 16-18. Put in the promo code MENDOCINO for 30% off the two events.

Janae also mentions that tickets are on sale for Wine Road’s Spring Wine Trail on May 10. Visit Wine Road dot com for more information.