Winter Wineland 2014 was the perfect venue to visit over 36 wineries in the Russian River Valley in January, plus another 100 or so wineries in Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Healdsburg, Geyserville and Santa Rosa.  My wine trek started along Olivet Road, my favorite stretch of vineyards  in the heart of the Russian River Valley, which led me to Sunce Winery.

Third generation Croatian-born winemaker, Frane Franicevic, has certainly perfected his love of winemaking over the years.  Frane released his first wines in 1990, created in a barn off Piner Road, later moving his winemaking operation to the current Sunce Winery site in the late 1990s.

Sunce is a Serb-Croatian word for “sunshine”.  And, plenty of sun shines in the Russian River Valley in the peak growing season.  Sunce Winery is named after one of Frane’s daughters, Sunce, with another vineyard and a varietal wine blend named after his other two daughters, Zora and Zemlja. [Read more…]