Next on our list of Croatian winemakers leaving the mark on the global wine scene: Frane Franičević of Sunce Winery in Santa Rosa, California.
Frane Franičević was born and raised in Sućuraj, on the island of Hvar, and his family decided to move to the United States in 1970, when he was 17 years old. He lived and studied in New Orleans, and then did his PhD dissertation in psychology in Sonoma County. During his time in California, he became inspired to reconnect with the family’s tradition of winemaking (as most other families in Sućuraj, his ancestors have been making wine for generations), although winemaking really does not have much in common with an academic career in psychology. He created his first business called One World Winery in 1990, in two rented barns west of Santa Rosa on Piner Road. In 1994 he partnered with his Californian wife Janae in business as well, and they relaunched the winery as Sunce Winery in 1998.
It’s located in Santa Clara, on Olivet Road which has been their home, where they make their wines and where their tasting room is located ever since. One detail also shows strong link with Croatia: in the backyard of their tasting room they have a bocce field, where guests can work on their bocce skills – and those most certainly improve with each new glass of wine! Sunce is a Croatian word for “sun”, but it’s also their younger daughter’s name, and their older daughter is Zora – which is what they called their vineyards and their estate! While quite popular and well respected among the wine-lovers and very rich in medals and commendations, Sunce remains a small family winery, with the family feel and managing the quality by not producing enormous amounts of their wine or growing each year. They have diverse selection of varieties in their vineyards, as Frane believes that it’s diversity that’s making him a better winemaker, because each variety forces him to give his best each year. Of course, pinot noir is what the entire winemaking region of Russian River is known for, and so Sunce winery is also making a lot of pinot noir, and the rest of their varieties include sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, chenin blanc, zinfandel (although Frane calls it primitivo on the label!), grenache and many others.
Frane also uses the grapes they grow to produce a wide menu of unique blends, and the blends tend to change each year, as he wants to bring out the best in every year’s vintage in blending. Some of his blends with most medals and recognition are Marriage (zinfandel and Napa gamay blend), Mistral (chardonnay, chenin blanc and sauvignon blanc blend) and Meritage (a Bordeaux-style blend). Frane believes that the quality of the grapes achieved in the vineyard using the modern techniques, while maintaining respect for the mystery that is the Earth is the key to making high-quality wines – and new barrels, since older barrels can’t help wine develop as it should.
Early in the winery’s life the Franicevics followed the route of most new wineries, trying to attract distributors to handle their wines, but they soon took a step back ward and now they sell most of their wine through direct sales, and have a very well received wine club to keep in constant contact with their devoted customers.
Dr. Franičević visits Croatia quite a lot, and has great respect for some of the Croatian reds, especially the very powerful plavac mali. He has also shown some interest in having some of its wines age in Croatian barrels made with oak from Slavonia, unfortunately he wasn’t able to make that happen yet. And he still enjoys the wine from his home island of Hvar, trying to convince anyone that he can’t get wines like that in Sonoma in California…
