2012 Walter Hansel Chardonnay Estate

Bright yellow. Potent orchard and citrus fruit aromas are lifted by notes of candied lemon and white flowers, with vanillin oak and ginger qualities gaining strength with air. Fleshy and broad on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, displaying juicy tangerine and pear flavors and a touch of smoky lees. Finishes sappy, incisive and long, with an echo of vanilla and very good clarity.

A deep, intense wine, the 2012 Chardonnay Estate boasts serious richness and power. This is one of the more overt wines in the range and will appeal most to readers who like broad, creamy, up-front California Chardonnays. In a vintage that naturally yielded open, expressive wines, I find the overall balance in the Meadows a bit more complete, but that is really nit-picking at this level.

The 2012 Chardonnay Estate, from a vineyard planted in 1976 and 1989, was aged in 38% new Francois Freres barrels, and goes through malolactic with lees stirring for about 6-8 weeks. Another terrific value, this 1,000-case beauty exhibits lots of white peach, honeyed citrus, brioche and pineapple notes enhanced by a gentle seasoning of wood spice, a full-bodied mouthfeel and loads of fruit as well as exuberance. There is a heavy underpinning of minerality running through this attractive Chardonnay. Consume it over the next 5-7 years. Combining quality with reasonable prices and estate-grown grapes, you can’t do much better than Stephen Hansel’s Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. He has also recently opened an excellent bistro called Walter Hansel Wine and Bistro at the site of a venue previously known as Zazu on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. Sadly, it officially opened the day I flew out of San Francisco. The 2012 Chardonnays had just been bottled when I tasted them, and the Pinot Noirs were all tasted from barrel. Hansel has over 40 acres of Pinot Noir planted with four separate clones. His wines tend to spend one year in oak prior to being bottled. They are always 100% destemmed, enjoy a 5-day cold soak, and around 60% new Francois Freres oak barrels are used during the aging process. Malolactic is always done in barrel rather than tank. The clonal material largely comes from Tom Rochioli’s holdings on the West Side Road in Russian River. The Rochioli clone is occasionally supplemented by the Swan clone and several of the more modern French Dijon clones such as 115 and 777. Tel. (707) 525-3614