2007-10-19
SUNCÉ
The Source of Wonderful Wines
by Millie Howie
“Sniff this,” said Janae Franicevic standing on tiptoe and peeking over the rim of an open top fermenter in the fermentation building of the small, prestigious Suncé Winery founded in 1990 by Janae and her husband/winemaker Frané Franicevic. “It’s our 2007 Sangiovese, just picked about a week ago.” Then moving to the second open top fermenter she exclaimed again. “Wow! I think this is the Nebbiolo, catch that fragrance.” Both wines, still, actually “must,” show promise of great things to come. Nearby a rack of new barrels was tagged Viognier, one of two new wines Frané is planning to add to the Suncé portfolio in another year or so.
Frequently visitors ask, “Why do you make so many different wines?” “Our answer,” replies Janae, “is that Frané believes that the best winemakers become even better by making a wide variety of wines grown in the right locations under the best viticultural conditions.”
This helps explain the appearance of some lesser-known varietals on the tasting menu such as the Sonoma Valley Sangiovese; the medal-winning Malbec, with its string of awards and the Nebbiolo, which Frané calls the BIG WOW WINE. In the Suncé family of wines there are also several dazzling Late Harvest wines including Sweet Zora Barbera from Clear Lake and an Old Vines Late Harvest Zinfandel and the Estate Pinot Noir, from Frané’s three-acre, 4000 vine vineyard adjacent to the winery buildings. The current release of the Estate Pinot Noir is from the 2005 vintage. The 2006 has just been bottled and the 2007 vintage was harvested September 15th
“There has been a lot of planning,” says Janae, “as we built the winery and planted the vineyard, but Frané also lets his instincts guide him as well, so there is also a certain amount of ‘Let’s try this and see what happens.’” With a warm smile she adds, “We must be doing something right. Every wine we make sells out, and most have been honored with gold medals, double golds and best of class awards in every show they have entered.”
The most recent awards have been draped around the necks of bottles of the prize- winning wines, and they are displayed at the end of the tasting bar. The ribbons earned in the 1990s are stored in boxes, and the Franicevic’s three daughters Zora, Suncé and Semja love playing with them.
This year Frané and Janae have invested in some additional French oak barrels and have constructed a cover over the two horizontal basket presses on the crush pad (which Janae explains is a misnomer, since there is no crushing done, the clusters are simply de-stemmed).
Janae is also proud of the change made in the appearance of their old steel fermentation building. “We milled the lumber from a 70-year-old barn and used the boards to cover the metal. It not only gives the building a strong rustic appearance, but because there is a layer of air between the steel and the wood, we have much better insulation.”
There is an attractive new Suncé tasting room in Healdsburg, just off the Plaza, at l32 Plaza St. It is closed Tuesday and Wednesday, but open Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. Tasting menus at both tasting rooms change about every two weeks so frequent visitors can enjoy trying new wines as they are released. There is no charge for tasting, and hospitality manager Kimberly Harbaugh explains that the Suncé Wine Club cannot take any new members at the moment, but she is building a waiting list, and is happy to inform enthusiasts personally when an opening occurs.
Celebrations are an important part of the Suncé picture. And one of the most delightful parties is the Annual Crush Party each October. There’s food, live music, a mystery wine contest and grape stomping fun. Throughout the year Frané and Janae invite club members to a series of bottling parties. “We have our own bottling and labeling equipment,” says Janae, “and we turn our bottling days into big all-day parties for our club members. We start them off with a big breakfast, stop for lunch and end with a classic barbecue. Dates for the bottling parties are listed on the Suncé website: www.suncewinery.com, along with historical notes about the birth and growth of the winery and cellar notes and sales information about all the wines. The winery, at 1839 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa, is open daily from 10:30 a.m. till 5 p.m. For directions or to order wine the number to call is (707) 526-9463. By the way, the correct pronunciation for the name, Suncé, which is Croatian for “sun,” the source of all things wonderful is Soon-Say.
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