The Walter Hansel winery, now run by Stephen Hansel, has over 80 acres consisting of 6 pinot noir clones and 7 chardonnay clones, all of it family owned. Their processes are done in a way that each wine is allowed to express its unique character; never compromising the wine’s freshness, finesse or texture. They hand harvest and manually sort- once in the vineyard and once in the winery. The Pinot Noir is destemmed and gravity guides the whole berries into open topped fermenters.

The South Slope Pinot Noir begins at the highest elevation and the furthest south of all of their vineyard blocks. It slopes from south to north about 45 feet and its soils are predominately sandy loam. The berry size is medium with a high berry count giving cluster weight that has yields approaching 2 ¼ tons/acre. It is 100% French clone 777, and tends to show its earthy side far more than their other clones. Although this wine definitely has a French origin, each year it becomes more and more new world in character.

Here is what Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate had to say about the 2012 South Slope Pinot Noir:

91+ POINTS ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE: “Made from Dijon clone 777, the dark ruby-hued 2012 Pinot Noir South Slope is fashioned from bigger berries, which has resulted in a wine with more of a red fruit character including lots of strawberries, cherries and pomegranates intermixed with damp earth and underbrush notes. Combining quality with reasonable prices and estate-grown grapes, you can’t do much better than Stephen Hansel’s Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.”

Buy this now at this week's incredibly low price of $32.30/bottle!


*Please enter coupon code SOLID6 during checkout to receive an additional 15% discount, when you purchase 6 bottles of the same wine in this sale. Offer valid through 3/3/2015 at 11:59 p.m. PT or until sold out. This offer is valid only on www.wineranger.com. Applicable taxes and shipping are additional. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer. No adjustments to prior purchases.