Walter Hansel Cuvee Alyce Chardonnay 2021
- Vinous
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Jeb
Dunnuck
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
Cuvee Alyce Chardonnay tends to offer big, rich, and "over the top" flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Chardonnay Cuvée Alyce is a classic Stephen Hansel wine. It offers notable richness but also a great deal of transparency. Hansel blends two variations of Wente Clone Chardonnay (Hyde and Hudson) with some clone 76 for his Cuvée Alyce, a Chardonnay that exudes class.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Chardonnay Cuvee Alyce is gorgeous and lush, pouring a saturated golden hue, and is forward with aromas of baked golden apple, preserve lemon, toasted spice, and pine resin. Rounded and packed with glycerol-like texture, this full-bodied white is ample but lifts cleanly off the palate with a long finish.
Other Vintages
2018-
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Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.