Sonoma County has already shown it can master Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, with smaller plantings of Semillon, Viognier, and others. But there’s a new white variety with plenty of potential, Grillo, growing in Dry Creek Valley.

Grillo is a full-bodied white variety native to Sicily. Aromatic and fruity, it tastes of almonds and apples, with elements of flowers, green peppers, and lemon, even a hint of sea breeze. While full-bodied, its texture is crisp.

Grillo typically goes into Marsala, a fortified table wine made both dry and sweet, with other Sicilian red and white varieties like Calabrese, Nerello, Perricone, Catarrato Blanco, Inzolia, and Damaschino. Yes, the wine is a main ingredient in Chicken Marsala.

Hanna Winery winemaker Jeff Hinchliffe sought out Grillo plant material some years ago, establishing California’s first Grillo vines on Chris Hanna’s Dry Creek Mountain Vineyard in 2023. The variety is known for being able to withstand high temperatures and is, as Wine Folly puts it, “a fuller, funky alternative to Pinot Grigio.”

The site sits between 400 and 600 feet elevation in iron-rich soils on Bradford Mountain’s eastern side, where it avoids extreme afternoon heat. The aim is lower Brix and higher acidity. There are 1,162 vines on the lower terraces with more to come.

A 2025 vintage Hanna Grillo is newly released. In making the wine Hinchcliffe picked large-berried clusters and dropped a lot of them to ensure even ripening, harvesting the Grillo at 24.9 Brix and 3.30 pH.

He then used a small press on the Champagne setting to get juice, adding yeast and cold-settling for two days before racking the result into two 15-month-old French oak barrels. It stayed on the lees to ferment over eight months before bottling this past June. A scant 37 cases exist.

As for other Sicilian white varieties, remember that Centennial Mountain is growing and making Carricante, a grape found for centuries on Sicily’s Mount Etna.

The producer also grows and makes Nebbiolo and Nerello Mascalese, these Italian varieties planted at 2,000 feet elevation 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean in northern Sonoma County. The Carricante and Nerello Mascalese are the only wines of their kind grown in the United States.

Orsi Family in Dry Creek Valley is another devoted to Italian wines. It makes such rarities as Aglianico, Sagrantino, and Negro Amaro, as well as the whites, Biancolella d’Ischia, a minerally white from the island of Ischia near Naples, and Fiano, grown mostly in Campania.

DaVero Estate makes many Italian-inspired wines, from Fiano and Malvasia Bianca to several Sangioveses and an estate Sagrantino.

There are also multiple versions of Vermentino coming out of Sonoma County. Birdhorse Wines gets its grapes from Farfalla Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. Joseph Jewell makes still, skin-contact, and sparkling Vermentinos from Raymond Burr Vineyard also in Dry Creek. The Reeve Vermentino, which includes 7% Falanghina, comes from Carneros, Bennett Valley, and the winery’s Dry Creek Valley estate.

But if you want to try something truly new, go for the Grillo, a lovely summer white with some heft and complexity, and a wonderful new addition to Sonoma County’s viticultural diversity.

Photo By: Hanna Winery