On the cover
Winemaker Leo Hansen near a vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon at Stuhlmuller Vineyards in Healdsburg.
Age: 42 What he does: Makes exceptional Chenin Blanc under his Leo Steen label, and top-notch Chardonnay and other wines for the established Stuhlmuller Vineyards. Backstory: Hansen was born into the restaurant trade — his father was a chef on the Danish coast — and he became a sommelier and manager at the Michelin-starred Kong Hans in Copenhagen. He thought he might import California wine into Denmark — “I liked the style of the wine at the time; it was exotic and different” — but after coming to Napa in 1998, he decided to stay. He worked at Souverain, both in the lab and at its Geyserville restaurant, and after working harvest in Australia, returned and took a job at Stuhlmuller in 2002, eventually convincing its owners to promote him to winemaker despite a lack of formal training. All the while he kept up sommelier duties at Healdsburg spots like Dry Creek Kitchen and Cyrus. In 2004, stymied by the limited choices for interesting local wine to pour by the glass, he decided to make his own under the Leo Steen label. Chenin Blanc, being one of California’s also-rans, was affordable enough to work with and had a side benefit: Its South African synonym, Steen, is Hansen’s middle name. Hansen also has reds in his repertoire, both for Leo Steen and Stuhlmuller. At Stuhlmuller, he quietly pulled in the reins on the winery’s standout Chardonnay — picking earlier, opting for less oak and less intrusive winemaking. But Chenin has become his calling card, both from Sonoma and Santa Barbara’s exceptional Jurassic Park vineyard. The Leo Steen wines quietly outperform, which has been Hansen’s plan all along. Harvest fuel: A German pilsner or wheat beer. A grilled breakfast sandwich from Jimtown Store in Healdsburg. Dream project: “To make really good Oregon Pinot, or Cabernet Franc from calcareous soils.” From the notebook: The green apple-tinged Saini Farms
Chenin Blanc ($18) is intense and long-lived, while the woodand-concrete-aged The Steen Jurassic Vineyard Chenin ($28) is as stately a California example as you’ll find.
“There are no people who go on the wine list and look for the section on Chenin Blanc, because it doesn’t exist. But if you place it by the glass, people might try it.”