History
The Franscionis have farmed the Salinas Valley for four generations. Gary's grandfather Silvio arrived from Switzerland in 1886 and ran a dairy; his father Joe moved the operation into row crops, beans and potatoes and sugar beets across a couple of hundred acres of valley ground. Gary took an agribusiness degree from Cal Poly, took over the farm, and in 1996 put wine grapes on land the family had held for a century. Rosella's came first, Garys' followed in 1997 in partnership with Gary Pisoni, and ROAR released its first wines in 2001. Rosella Franscioni, who came to the valley from Durango at the age of six and met Gary when he walked into the hair salon where she worked, gave both the vineyard and the label their name.
The Site
The assessor's parcel runs 51 acres against roughly 50 acres published, one of the closer matches on the bench. Rows climb southeast facing ground from River Road toward the mountain ridge, between about 180 and 430 feet, with lemon groves along the western edge. This is the northernmost of the family's sites, about a mile north of Garys', and the soil is Arroyo Seco sandy loam, the same alluvial material that runs under the neighbouring bench vineyards. The afternoon wind off Monterey Bay is the governing fact of the growing season here, closing the vines down through the hottest hours and stretching ripening out for weeks.
Vines and Blocks
Roughly 38 acres of Pinot Noir, nine of Chardonnay and two of Syrah. The Pinot spans the Pisoni selection alongside Pommard and clones 23, 113, 667 and 777; the Chardonnay is Dijon 76 and 96; the Syrah is Alban material. No internal block names are published, and the vineyard is farmed as a single continuous slope rather than a mosaic. Published acreage runs from 49 to 55 depending on who is counting.
The Wines
ROAR is the estate voice. Kosta Browne has bottled the designate since 2005 and has the longest documented run of the outside buyers, with Testarossa, Miner, Siduri, Loring and Furthermore all taking fruit. Carlisle's Rosella's bottling is a Syrah rather than a Pinot Noir, drawn from the two acre block. The house character is the appellation's in concentrated form: dark-fruited, firmly acidic Pinot Noir with the structure to age.