The "Hanzell Vineyards" winery is located in the Mayacamas Mountains north of the town of Sonoma in California's
Sonoma County (
North Coast region). It was founded by the former US ambassador to Italy James David Zellerbach (1892-1963) after his retirement. The name "Hanzell" was formed from the first letters of his wife's first name Hana and the family name. In 1948 Zellerbach bought a property of 80 hectares of land. His aim was to build a winery based on the Burgundian model and to produce top quality wines in the Burgundy style. The winery actually evokes associations with the famous Château du Vougeot. The first vines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were planted in 1953 on 2.5 hectares. The first harvest took place four years later, in 1957, when Zellerbach introduced steel tanks and began to age wines from the two varieties in barriques. For the first time in California, wooden barrels from Burgundy were introduced for this purpose.
Although Zellerbach was only able to produce a total of six vintages until his imminent death, he set a widely recognized and imitated quality standard. After Zellerbach's death there were several owners, but the high quality of the wines remained unchanged. Since 1975 the estate has been owned by the de Brye family, since 1991 by Alexander de Brye. The cellar master Bob Sessions contributed significantly to the success of the estate, he held this position from 1973 to 2001. Michael Terrien was engaged as his successor, his daughter Jean Arnold Sessions has been president of the company since then. The vineyards cover 17 hectares. Eleven of them are planted with Chardonnay and six with Pinot Noir. Around 6,000 cases (72,000 bottles) of wine are produced annually.
