About the winery
Sunce Winery is a small family winery on Olivet Road, just off River Road in the Russian River Valley outside Santa Rosa2. Frane Franicevic, who was born and raised in Sucuraj on the Croatian island of Hvar, took up home winemaking while writing his doctorate in psychology and opened One World Winery on the outskirts of Santa Rosa in 19902. In 1998, on the advice of his wife Janae, One World Winery became Sunce Winery, and that year the couple bought the present property, planted the vineyard and built the winery2. Sunce means "sun" in Croatian1.
On the original Web Winery, from December 1998, it was still One World Winery4. Its page said the first release, a 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon, won a silver medal at the 1993 Sonoma County Harvest Fair, that the winery made about 2,000 cases a year from organically grown grapes, and that it made many small lots for the tasting room4. It also offered personalized labels, two lines of text, on case orders4. "I see wine making as a matter of serving Nature and recognizing Her invitation to assist in evolution, rather than controlling the outcome," Franicevic wrote there4. By 2000 the page was headed Suncè Winery, "formerly known as One World Winery"5.
Today the winery makes small lots from its estate Pinot Noir vineyard and from partner vineyards in the Russian River, Dry Creek and Sonoma valleys and the Clear Lake appellation2. It counts 44 varieties made over the years, not counting blends and ports3.
Known for
- Zora's Estate Pinot Noir
- Zinfandel
- small lots of many varieties
- ports
Nearby in Russian River Valley
- DeNatale Vineyards HealdsburgNot confirmed
