I didn't expect to like this 2004 Chardonnay from Hanzell Vineyards as much as I did. The 2004 is now five years old and tastes like a young Kongsgaard The Judge. Pale hay color, but big Wow! in the mouth, featuring mango and mellow tropical fruit notes, with intense butterscoth on the tongue and fresh, slimey and briney oyster texture on the finish. This big boy is saved by that salty finish.
I've been wondering recently what it would mean if Hanzell, which planted the first pinot noir vines in California in 1953, received 95+ points from the major trade press regularly. Hanzell is a story book vineyard (literally) that has all the makings to produce $600/bottle pinot noir. One 99 point score from Robert Parker is pretty much all it would take. In fact, Hanzell's ultra premium chardonnay recently received 96 points from Parker, and was priced at $175/bottle. A couple more scores like that, combined with their history and pedigree, and good luck finding a bottle for under $200. It wouldn't surprise me if a decade from now Hanzell was allocating its wines at grand cru prices.
Now I'm not really looking forward to that happening, but I've begun to think it's inevitable, because I think there is a real "grass roots" movement in the wine industry these days to have producers truly communicate with consumers about the story of their vineyard and their winemaking. It is my belief that the producers that are going to come out of this recession running are those who increase transparency with the consumer and tell a story about the history of their vineyard. Well, Hanzell's got a lot of history; they have good visibility and good transparency, and I think that these qualities are going to serve them well and will translate into continued consumer/price support.
Plus, the wines age really, really well.
Hanzell previously reviewed:
2005 Chardonnay ***
1995 Pinot Noir ***
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