2004 Walter Hansel Winery Pinot Noir The North Slope Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (104) Avg Score: 91.0 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Herringfleet's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/17/2023 - Herringfleet wrote: 93 Points

  Popped and poured. Bright red cherry, some dust, and a hint of umami. Full and still a good bit of life left. Liking this a lot right now and will aim to drink my remaining bottles soon.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Drandy46's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/29/2020 - Drandy46 wrote: 94 Points

  Wine stored at 58F since purchase. Bottle was poured directly without decant. A mistake! Beautiful dark ruby color with no sign of age. Difficult to coax a nose and tasted disjointed. Didn't have time to let the wine develop that night. I left a 1/4 of the bottle open to air at room temp. I am on vacation so I tried the wine prior to my AM espresso. What a great transformation! Nose still a bit muted, but beautiful black cherry aromas. Sweet dark fruits on the tongue. No longer disjointed. Very California in a good way. Can evolve another 20 years. Definitely decant for at least an hour.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View garysroses@gmail.com's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/2/2020 - garysroses@gmail.com wrote: 96 Points

  Just got an interesting email from Stephen Hansel, the only winemaker the winery has ever had. He said the intense heat in 04 required harvesting several weeks earlier than normal. His harvest manager was uncertain which of the grapes to use for the harvest, as they were mostly dried out like raisons. Stephen said to use them all, or there'd be no wine. When he tasted it the following February he said, "wow, this is pretty good." But he never thought it would have a shelf-life. And thus, he was happily surprised to hear my report(s) of how that wine has aged.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View garysroses@gmail.com's profile
  • Report Issue

  2/29/2020 - garysroses@gmail.com Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Wow. Tonight i tasted the last bottle of a case of this extraordinary, and largely misunderstood pinot. Nobody, not even Hansel's current winemaker seems to have realized how long this wine can continue to evolve, and how amazing it can be in a good year, if well-stored and you're patient enough to give it the time it needs to reach its apogee. The bottles I drank before it's 10th birthday didn't seem to deserve its Parker score (94-96). Many drinkers were turned off by its over the top dark fruit jammy-ness--so unlady-like. Parker was prescient to have recognized its 96 point potential when it was still barely an infant, but even he underestimated its aging potential by at least 5 years, thinking the upper range of its optimum drinking window to be 2015. Drinking it tonight with a rack of lamb at Lalime's in Berkeley was a revelation. Ten minutes after a decant, the sweet, focused black fruit was all essence and no bombast. And simply, one of the most memorable bottles of pinot noir I've ever tasted in my life.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View mossreport's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/14/2018 - mossreport Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Still great. Very rich full bodied wine. Need about 30 min to open up.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 104 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.