New oak, and the salt still has to win.

Dan Petroski started Massican in 2009 so a Napa bottle could sit on an Italian table. The wine on this page is the 2025 Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay. Larry Hyde planted that vineyard in Carneros in 1979, on the Napa side of the line, so the appellation is Napa Valley. The parcels in this bottling are Musque clone and old Wente, planted between 1979 and 1992. If the barrel is entirely new, what keeps the salt in the glass?

The salt is the place. Southern Napa, rolling hills, a southeast face, and saline fog off the bay in the morning. Those Hyde vines are organically farmed. The oak is the frame around that fruit, not a second vineyard. This wine was fermented and aged in entirely new French oak, then bottled as the single vineyard. The rest of the Massican whites live in neutral wood and steel. This is the one that takes the new barrel.

James Suckling scored this 2025 a 95 on May 20, 2026. Jim Gordon found it bracing and electric, racy in texture, saline and mineral, with unusually high acidity, then rounder and creamier as the glass sits. He has it fresh, linear, and light in body, under 13 percent alcohol, and ready to drink or to hold. Miranda Franco scored the same 2025 a 95 for Wine Review Online on July 1, 2026, green apple and jasmine over lemon curd and a saline line. The bottle on this page is that Hyde Chardonnay, at $47.

Hyde, on the Napa side of Carneros

Hyde Vineyard is the fruit, and it is the whole fruit. Larry Hyde put the vineyard in the ground in 1979. The Chardonnay that Massican bottles from it comes off vines planted from that year through 1992, Musque and old Wente. The hills roll, the rows face southeast, and the morning fog comes in salty. The house calls that the reason a Hyde Chardonnay can stay bright even after new oak.

The vines on this vineyard are organically farmed. That is the Hyde block, not a claim about every Massican source. The appellation stays Napa Valley because the vineyard sits on the Napa side of Carneros. Six hundred six cases is the size of the bottling. Read that as a single-vineyard lot, not as the size of the brand.

The photograph is Dan Petroski at harvest, a cluster in his hand over the bins. It is the morning work. It is not a map of which rows filled this bottle. The rows in the glass are Hyde.

Entirely new French oak, then the bottle

The house picks at daybreak and presses whole clusters. The juice settles overnight. Ferments run on the yeast the lot wants, cultured or native. For the other Massican whites, the vessels are neutral oak, steel, and the occasional concrete egg. For this Chardonnay the vessel is new French oak, all of it, for the ferment and the aging. The house says that barrel puts a smoky edge on the Hyde fruit. The acid is what keeps the smoke from taking the glass.

Alcohol is 12.8 percent. The wine is dry. The sheet shows the sugar fermented out and the acid left high, which is why the sip stays racy after the oak. Serve it slightly cool, about 55 degrees, and give the glass a minute. Gordon's note says it rounds as it opens. It does not need a decanter. Drink it in the year after the vintage, while the flowers and the citrus are still loud. It picks up a little weight later in that year.

Six bottles are $282. Twelve are $564, and twelve ship free outside Hawaii and Alaska. Each bottle on this listing is $47.

Green apple, jasmine, and salt

The house note on this 2025 starts with green apple, jasmine, and pineapple. The palate moves to lemon curd, nectarine, and a salty mineral line. That is the Hyde fruit talking through the new oak: citrus and flowers first, then the bay salt, with the barrel as a warm edge rather than a coat of vanilla.

Jim Gordon's May 2026 note sits on the same ground. Bracing, saline, mineral, high acid, then creamier once the glass has a minute. Light in body. Under 13 percent alcohol, which matches the 12.8 on the sheet. Drink it now, or hold it. Franco's July note found the same apple, jasmine, lemon curd, and salt, and scored it 95 as well.

Wine-Searcher, checked on 2026-10-29, put the U.S. market low at $46.57 and the average at $49.23. This listing is $47. The winery price is $60. Members type FEATURED20 at checkout for an extra 20 percent off. The corner above carries those figures and the link to the public find page.

A Brooklyn kid, an Italian table, a Napa white

The name is Monte Massico, the ridge above the Campania coast where Dan's grandparents came from. He grew up in Brooklyn, played football at Columbia, and worked at Sports Illustrated and Time. A year at Valle dell'Acate in Sicily turned him. Harvest at DuMOL in 2006 led to the Larkmead cellar, and he became winemaker there in 2012. Massican began beside that job in 2009, named in part for his mother, Annia. Making these whites is his work now.

The press on Dan is about the man, not a score on this bottle. The San Francisco Chronicle named him Winemaker of the Year in 2017. Food and Wine named him a Drinks Innovator in 2022. VinePair named him Winemaker of the Year in 2024. In 2023 the brand joined E. and J. Gallo, and Dan stayed to source the fruit and make the wine. The 95 on this page is James Suckling on the 2025 Hyde, Jim Gordon, May 20, 2026.

The bottle you add is the 2025 Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay, Napa Valley, at $47. New French oak, Hyde salt, and Suckling's 95.

Oysters, or sardines in saor

The house puts this Chardonnay with Venetian sardines in saor. Fried sardines, sweet onion, raisins, pine nuts, and vinegar. The salty fish meets the Hyde salt. The onion and the raisin meet the little smoke from the new oak. The acid in the wine keeps the plate from going heavy.

Oysters do the colder job. A mignonette, a lemon, the brine already in the shell. Green apple and jasmine stay audible. Serve the bottle slightly cool. Both plates leave the 2025 room to taste like Hyde.