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Julie Pedroncelli St. John is back as a guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. Her last time on this show was this episode of April 26, 2023. The Pedroncelli family winery began when her grandparents bought some property in Dry Creek Valley that contained a vineyard, a home and a shuttered winery. This was seven years before the repeal of Prohibition. They sold grapes and then after Prohibition was repealed in December, 1933 they started producing wine. They have been family-owned and operated ever since then.
The Dry Creek Valley has ideal conditions for certain grapes including Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel. The Pedroncelli property is on the hillside. Different ends of the property have different microclimates and today they farm about 11 different varieties on all of their vineyards. By owning the property the wine production is not subject to the financial pressure of a mortgage.
Winemaker Montse Reese
Their winemaker in Montse Reese who just celebrated 18 years there. Everything they grow comes into the winery. They also buy from growers all around Dry Creek Valley. The Zinfandel they are tasting today is an example of their product that comes from their own vineyards and from other local growers.
There is a tab on the Pedroncelli website called Vino in my Dino, which comes from the Flintstone’s Dino the Dinosaur cup. When Julie was 5 years old her first taste of wine, watered down, of course, came from one of those.
Julie has brought a 2023 Chardonnay that comes from F. Johnson vineyard in southern Dry Creek Valley. The winemaker Montse Reese put it in French oak barrels for 8 months, and it undergoes malolactic fermentation sur lies. This makes a wine with complex citrus and melon flavors. It is a candidate for at least a year of aging but is already tasty. It has a wild tropical fruit component which suggests that the wine will improve with aging or when decanted. “Time in bottle or time in the air,” giving aeration helps a lot, says Dan.