Producer profile: Trinchero Family Estates

As the world’s second largest family-owned winery and fourth largest winery in the US, Trinchero Family Estates traces its humble roots back to 1948 when Italian immigrant Mario Trinchero moved his family from New York to Napa and spent his savings on an abandoned Prohibition-era winery named Sutter Home.

The Trincheros initially focused on making Sutter Home’s Amador County Zinfandel and employed the saignée method to add intensity to the red while also fermenting the leftover free-run juice to make a dry rosé.

They had been making their saignée rosé for several years, but in 1975 experienced a stuck fermentation, leaving 2% residual sugar in the wine and resulting in a lower alcohol, semi-sweet rosé.

Undaunted, they bottled the wine anyway, which was met with instant consumer approval. In Cinderella-like fashion the Trinchero winery boomed in popularity.

Sutter Home White Zinfandel was born and by the mid-1980s became America’s best-selling wine, introducing more Americans to the world of wine than any other brand in the country’s history.

From California to the world

Times have changed and while white Zin isn’t enjoying the same consumer spotlight that it did more than three decades ago, sales have merely plateaued not dropped off significantly over the years.

Today, the Sutter Home label sells 10 million cases annually and has provided the financial foundation for expanding the family’s brand and partnership opportunities.

With more than 50 wine and spirits brands distributed to almost 50 countries, the TFE portfolio carries close to 30 California-based brands, with eight distinguished properties in the Napa Valley alone.

‘By keeping our brands distinct and unique, often with their own winemakers, we’ve been able to maintain the individual identities of each label,’ says Madison Kramer, Trinchero’s wine and spirits educator.

From easy entry points like Sutter Home and Napa Cellars, through Sonoma’s Folie à Deux and second label Ménage à Trois, up to luxury lines from Trinchero Napa Valley and nearby Neyers Vineyards, the portfolio’s wide range of price points invites a full spectrum of budgets.

The Trinchero portfolio also includes familiar partnerships like Joel Gott and Charles & Charles, along with more than a dozen international import brand partnership such as Spain’s Terras Gauda in Rías Baixas and Allende in Rioja, Avissi Prosecco from Italy and New Zealand’s Echo Bay.

Built in St Helena on the site of the former Folie à Deux Winery (which has since moved to Sonoma), Trinchero Napa Valley (TNV) is home to the family’s flagship estate and hospitality centre.

The winery focuses on single-vineyard, estate-grown wines priced to be both intentionally accessible and collectible at $35 to more than $100 a bottle (£29-£85+).

It is the second largest producer of single-vineyard wines in Napa and offers a range of tasting experiences to showcase its terroir-driven 14 single-vineyard selections and library collection.

According to TNV winemaker Mario Monticelli, ‘French oak is what offers the most subdued impact on Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. I don’t want to overpower…I just want to layer.’

A taste of Trinchero Napa Valley

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