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Walter Hansel Winery Pinot Noir Cuvee Alyce 2015  - First Bottle

Reviews

94 Vinous -
Hansel`s 2015 Pinot Noir Cuvee Alyce is super-ripe, rich and exotic, with a full-throttle expression of fruit and tons of intensity. Succulent red cherry, plum, mint and sweet spice are all pushed forward. This is one of the most flamboyant wines in the range. Readers should expect a full-throttle Russian River Pinot. -- Antonio Galloni in VINOUS, Mar 2017
94 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -
Produced primarily from Dijon cone 115, but also 777, the 2015 Pinot Noir Cuvée Alyce is another blue and red-fruit dominated wine, but with notes of rose petals and violets. It is more closed than the other Pinot Noir and seems to be almost pushing to get out of its relatively structured mouthfeel. This is intense, rich, more backward and probably has a significant upside, but will need several years of bottle age on release next year.

The 2015 Pinot Noirs are still in barrel, hence these notes are all barrel samples. This was the earliest harvest for Stephen Hansel in more than a generation and the yields were frightfully low, averaging 40% off their average production that is never that high to begin with. All of these Pinot Noirs enjoy a 5-6 day cold soak and tend to see 50%-60% new oak and the rest one-year-old oak. They are set to be bottled unfined and unfiltered in November 2016.

Technical Details

  • BlendPinot Noir
  • CountryUS
  • RegionCalifornia North Coast
  • AppellationRussian River Valley, Sonoma County
  • Alcohol14.50%%

Walter Hansel Winery Pinot Noir Cuvee Alyce 2015

Pinot Noir  |  US
VN94, WA92-94+

Too late, we are SOLD OUT!
An all-time favorite RRV pinot here at First Bottle, and an astounding bargain -- how does Hansel keep these prices so realistic when the wine just GUSHES?? Don't ask -- just DRINK it!! Check out the scores for this vintage!

About the Producer

"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. Since our first commercial vintage in 1996, I have learned with every harvest that you must listen to vine; react to Mother Nature and ALWAYS compromise quantity for quality." - Steven Hansel