Peter Franus Wine Company

NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, USA

I first met Peter Franus around seven years ago. A charming man with a passion for his products. It took me another six years and my own wine shop to start stocking his amazing Californian wines. A former journalist, Franus enrolled in a viticulture and enoloy course in 1978 and ended up as winemaker at Mount Veeder Winery. Starting his own label six years later, he left Mount Veeder Winery in 1992.

After spending years building connections throughout Napa, he now has a group of growers who produce fruit that he wants, and since the early 2000s when he refocused his company, good scores have come from critics and yet is still a bit of an insiders secret. In one respect, I'd like his wines to more well known because they deserve to be heralded, but on the other, I like them to stay unknown except for those that hunt them out!