Walter Hansel Winery

My father, Walter, loved to grow everything from kiwi to oriental pears and more. In the 1970's he enlisted my help to plant 257 chardonnay vines. Throughout the 1980's our entire family would harvest the half acre of grapes and my father and I would make the wine; filling two barrels, which equaled 50 cases of wine.

All of our pinot noirs and chardonnays are estate grown; our Sauvignon Blanc is produced from a vineyard owned and farmed to our specifications by our vineyard manager and his father. We produce five estate vineyard designated pinot noirs and one estate pinot noir from a blend of our grape sites. We planted 3 rows of Pinot noir in 1989 from bud wood I received from Tom Rochioli.

We are fortunate to have many favorable reviews from professional wine writers; thanks to all of them and we will strive to continue to produce wines that they feel are outstanding, however, I feel EVERYONE is an expert of what they like. Your personal prefereneces should always guide your choices.

One of the most unique aspects of Walter Hansel Winery is that no one works full time in the Winery. When I need various tasks to be completed, whether during harvest or during the year, I have Jesse, the vineyard manager and some of his crew work along side of me to accomplish our tasks. The team works the winery; the bottling line; and also fill and ship your orders to your home or office.

Although we started with just 257 vines we currently farm 80 acres consisting of a total of 11 different clones. All of our vineyards are contigous to each other with the winery facility situated in the center, making farming, harvesting and processing more efficient and easier to control quality.