Hanzell Pinot Blindtasting ’65-’89

Introduction by Ross Bott, our tasting organizer
As a companion tasting to our Hanzell Chardonnay tasting three weeks ago, we'll have a Hanzell Pinot Noir tasting this week. At the Chardonnay tasting, the oldest wine (1978) won, showing still fresh fruit, depth and complex overtones of roasted grains and lees reminiscent of a top older Meursault.

Although both are difficult to find, Hanzell Pinot Noirs are much rarer than their Chardonnays, with only 1/4 of their estate planted to Pinot. The story began in 1948 when James D. Zellerbach acquired 200 acres in the Mayacamas Mountains, on the Sonoma side of the ridge separating the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, with a dream of replicating the great red and white Burgundies of France. In 1953 he planted 6 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot, and although the total vineyards have now expanded to 42 acres, the original Pinot vineyard is still in production, and is the oldest Pinot vineyard in America.

Winemaker Bob Sessions' philosophy towards making Pinot Noir was to try to achieve maximum extraction of Pinot character from the grapes. He was one of the pioneers of the technique of macerating the Pinot grapes on their skins after crushing. Although the alcohols were not high by current Pinot standards (typically in the mid to high 13s), the resultant wines were often massive in concentration, tannic, and almost Rhone-like when young. More often than not, they required a decade or two to even begin to open up and develop a much more Burgundian profile, and, like the Hanzell Chardonnays, have a penchant for a very long life.

Tonight, we'll try Hanzell Pinot Noirs ranging back to a 32-year old Pinot from the mid-70s to a 18-year old "youngster" from 1989. Not a lot of tasting notes can be found for these rare wines -- we'll create our own tonight!):

'65-'77 pictured:

1965 Hanzell, Sonoma (13%)
1975 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.6%)
1976 Hanzell, Sonoma (15.1%)
1977 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.8%)
1981 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.9%)
1984 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.6%)
1986 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.6%)
1987 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.7%)
1989 Hanzell, Sonoma (13.8%)

This was a very educational tasting--a chance to see how a particular style of California Pinot has aged over the decades. This concentrated, tannic style of Pinot, intentionally made to age, held up fairly well in many vintages, but generally lacked the charming fruit that distinguishes California Pinot. And in a few cases, unfortunately, the firm and often thick-grained tannins had outlasted every other virtue the wine once possessed. Comparing the showing of these wines to that of the Hanzell Chardonnays we tasted a few weeks ago, my conclusion is that Hanzell Chards hold onto their luscious fruit a lot longer than the Pinots, and possess the structure and acid, without the grainy tannins, to age more elegantly than the Pinots. I therefore find myself siding with Robert Lawrence Balzer (whom I got to meet and taste with at Anthony Dias Blue's monthly panel tastings for Bon Appetit when I lived in L.A., when Balzer was 92 years old), who wrote the following in the '84 edition of his The Los Angeles Times Book of California Wines. This is the last paragraph of his two-page overview of Hanzell, in which he focuses on Hanzell's innovative use of French oak barrels:
"For Hanzell Chardonnay, and all those other California Chardonnay wines which have enjoyed preeminence through the touch of French wood, it would seem that success was achieved. But, alas, wood has not wrought the victory with Hanzell Pinot Noir. It is good but not great, though, like the Chardonnay, it now costs $8 per bottle." p. 106.
I know that my distinguished fellow vintage Madeira lover, Roy Hersh, however, favors the Hanzell Pinots over the Chards. I'm looking forward to the results, shortly, of his even more exhaustive vertical of both varietals in Seattle.

I found myself rating these very mature California Pinots in terms of how well they compared to mature Burgundies. A few of my fellow Burgophiles—e.g., Mark Sutherland and Christine Huang—reported doing the same, but we ended up favoring different vintages. Maybe we were tending more to look for the kind of Burgs that we like—in my case, the softer, more aromatic Vosne-Romanees—as we agreed on some, but not all, of our top ranked wines. The favorite for the group overall was our youngest bottle, the '89 (whereas, in the case of the Hanzell Chards, we'd rated our oldest bottle, a '78, at the top). It was poured out as our ninth wine, which I hadn't been expecting, since we usually do flights of 8. It went then into the smaller glass I'd borrowed from our host, and in which it didn't show as well as in the glass I tried it out of after we tallied our results. The '87 was the top wine for me (3rd for the group), because it tasted most to me like a sweet, mature Vosne-Romanee. A couple of other Burgophiles ranked the '84 as their favorite. I liked it too, but it was more like a mature Pommard for me.

In sum, I will continue to seek out older Hanzell Chards as one of my top choices when looking for mature Chardonnay from California, but when it comes to the Pinots, although Hanzell's are not bad, I have many more choices both for charming youthful Pinot as well as for ageworthy Pinot.

'81-'89

• 1975 Hanzell Pinot Noir 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #2 (my #5) – 87 pts; 4, 0, 4, 2 – mushroomy, Balsamic, menthol nose; mature, high acid, very tart palate, with Balsamic and note of tomato paste toward medium tangy, earthy finish 88+ pts.

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• 1987 Hanzell Pinot Noir 91 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #3 (my #1) – 90 pts; 2, 3, 1, 0 – tart cherry, soy and mushroom nose; good mature sweet red fruit, good acid, with sweet grainy tannins; medium finish 91+ pts.

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• 1977 Hanzell Pinot Noir 90 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #4 (my #3) – 96 pts; 3, 1, 3, 0 – Balsamic, earthy, shitake mushroom nose; good tart red fruit, tangy, broad mid-palate, with iron note; medium finish 90+ pts.

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• 1984 Hanzell Pinot Noir 89 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #5 (my #4) – 103 pts.; 4, 0, 1, 2 – mushroomy mature strawberry nose; tart, mature red fruit, with Balsamic and tangy undertones, good acid; dry short-medium finish (like a mature tart Pommard; showing advanced maturity for its age though)

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• 1986 Hanzell Pinot Noir 91 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #6 (my #2) – 106 pts.; 1, 3, 2, 2 – intriguing, sweet strawberry, kirsch nose; nice, complex, mature Burgundian palate, with tart red fruit, hints of lime and mineral; medium finish (deteriorated a lot after an hour in the glass)

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• 1981 Hanzell Pinot Noir 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #7 (my #6) – 107 pts.; 0, 4, 1, 1 – mature dried cherry, iodine nose; solid, tart strawberry, with dried mushroom edges; medium finish

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• 1976 Hanzell Pinot Noir 87 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #8 (my #7) – 115 pts.; 2, 3, 1, 5 – sweet raspberry, Balsamic and prune nose; very mature, grainy, Balsamic, tart cherry; medium finish 87+ pts.

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• 1965 Hanzell Pinot Noir 86 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group's #9 (my #9) – 117 pts.; 1, 2, 2, 5 – sharp VA, iron, earthy, dried fruit nose; very mature, but still possessing a thin vein of sweet fruit, balanced, smoky, dried cherry, with musty, clay notes toward short-medium finish 86+ pts.

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Matt, Tom and Julie