Hanzell Vineyards, the historic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producer in California’s Sonoma Valley, has hired a gem of a winemaker, Michael McNeill, to replace Michael Terrien, who recently resigned to concentrate on his own Carneros Pinot Noir brand, Kazmer & Blaise.
Like me, Hanzell president Jean Arnold Sessions and her husband, Hanzell winemaker emeritus Bob Sessions, admire Michael McNeill, who has made terrific Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs at little-known Keller Estate, located in an off-the-beaten-path part of southern Sonoma County that may one day have its own appellation, likely to be called the Petaluma Gap.
The Petaluma Gap is southeast...