Kyle Cameron and Gianna Fugazi of Trecini Winery are our first-time guests on California Wine Country with Daedalus Howell in for Steve Jaxon, and with Dan Berger.

Kyle is a seventh generation Russian River Valley farmer. They are farming grapes now. He and his wife Christina bought Trecini Winery in order to get more involved in the rest of the wine business, apart from growing grapes. The wine market is in a downturn, so he has a positive outlook. Dan Berger says this downturn is a predictable one or two year cyclic drop.

Giana Fugazi is originally from Linden, California, where she grew up on a cherry orchard. She studied wine business and archaeology at Sonoma State. Her dad calls grape growing “fancy farming.”  She worked as an archaeologist in Italy for three years.

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

Dan Berger believes that the future will include more Italian grape varieties. He peaks to retailers all around the country and the world. Retailers are telling him that there is less enthusiam for the Number one varietals in white and red, which are Chards and Cabs. There are many wines that used to be obscure that people are asking for. “I’m interested in making any kind of obscure wine,” says Kyle.

Dan’s Albariño and Gianna’s Verdolo

As a starter, Dan has brought a wine from grape grower Francis Mahoney, a friend of his. It is a 2024 Albariño, quite dry, sells for about $24 a bottle. It’s in a lot of local retain shops. Gianna has brought a Verdolo from Portugal. There are less than 500 acres of this grape in California. This is a 2024 from Taft Street, where Gianna is a series winemaker. This is her first take, a 100% neutral barrel. The organic grapes are from Calaveras County. She fermented it outside in barrels, no temperature control, then she consolidated it into an egg (concrete). There was no temperature control, so it was risky but successful.