Alexander Valley Wineries: Hanna Winery & Vineyards

We moved to Sonoma with one goal in mind: to become the ultimate wine hipsters. Well, two goals: to become the ultimate wine hipsters AND drink a ton of wine from the best wineries in Sonoma. And eat a lot of good food. Fine, we have a lot of goals. Enough about our goals. We’re scouring Sonoma County for the best little known, small run wineries we can find in order to achieve the greatest virtue of hipsterdom: telling you all about the really cool places we love that you've never heard of. We’re doing this for you. Trust us.

Hanna Winery & Vineyards:  $15/person tasting menu. Fee waved with each bottle purchased.

Rainy days are definitely a bummer when you’re touring through Sonoma wine country. Experiencing the rolling hills and fields of grape vines are worth the trip by themselves. You can still get a taste of the sheer beauty of this land with low clouds and heavy rain, but it’s not the same. Just imagine the pictures we took of the Hanna grounds under sunny skies.

We ended up at Hanna a bit by mistake. We were spending the day in Healdsburg tasting wine with some friends who were visiting from out of town. We were driving down Highway 128 on our way to another winery when we passed the Hanna tasting room (pro tip: Highway 128 in Healdsburg is crawling with great wineries). Our friends saw the sign and started going on and on about how great the wine was when they went there years ago. We were en route to a reservation, but we happily agreed to make a stop at Hanna later in the afternoon.

Well, after about 10 minutes in the Hanna tasting room, they realized that this was a completely different winery. They’d gotten the name wrong. It was, however, a happy accident. The grounds were beautiful and the wine was quite nice.

2014 Hanna Rosé: Very light, almost tawny in color. It has a subtle nose. Grapefruit and green strawberries for the most part. There are strawberries and oranges on the tongue. Orange zest on the finish. Medium bodied and a enough tannins to make you suck your teeth. A good rosé, but we’ve had better.

2014 Elias Chardonnay: The grapes for this wine come from the Russian River Valley, not the estate. There are kumquats and lemon the nose. Meyer lemon, browned butter and lemon zest on the tongue.  A good amount of lemon zest on the finish. It’s dry, although we’d bet there’s a little bit of residual sugar in this one. It’s a high quality Chardonnay

2013 Hanna Malbec: This is a rather unique Malbec. You get a hit of frozen strawberries on the nose, which is not what we’d expect at all from a Sonoma Malbec. It’s very smooth and fruit forward. Strawberries and espresso on the tongue. A lot of black pepper on the finish. Big tannins. It’s definitely interesting…but not what we’re looking for in a Malbec. A little too light and fruit forward for our tastes. We prefer something a bit earthier.

2013 Hanna Reserve Alchimie: Dark ruby in color. We noticed the legs right away. Roses and garden soil on the nose. Very smooth. Cherries, freeze dried raspberries, pencil shavings and white pepper on the tongue. Muted pepper and cherries on the finish. Pretty big tannins, but they’re not overpowering. It's well balanced and definitely has aging potential.

2013 Hanna Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: Deep violet in color. Cherries, currants and sage on the nose. Black cherries up front, then cinnamon mid palate and ripe blackberries on the tip of the tongue. Sautéed banana and coriander on the finish. Weird, but very pleasing. It’s pretty well balanced. This vintage could definitely benefit from some time in the rack to mellow out sizable tannins and round out some of the hard edges. In case there was any doubt, this is a really good Cab. We bought a bottle to put in storage. From us, that’s high praise.

These are all good wines. The cabernet is very good (we bought a bottle, didn’t we?). We are, however, totally spoiled since we moved to Sonoma. A few years ago we would have gushed over how amazing these wines are, but tasting high quality wines every week has shifted our scale pretty far to the right. So, while we weren’t blown away by any of these wines, we can say with certainty that Hanna is well worth visiting. Good wine & great views are always worth a few minutes in the car.

Hanna Winery & Vineyards is located on Highway 128 in Healdsburg, CA. To learn more about them, visit their website at http://www.hannawinery.com/.