Jeff Hansen shares his “passion for Pinot” and the Anderson Valley Region
Jeff Hansen, owner and winemaker for Lula Cellars, brings nearly 30 years of grape growing and winemaking experience to the brand. Jeff’s handcrafted, limited production Mendocino Coast Pinot Noir, along with Zinfandel, Dry Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Rosato (Rosé of Pinot Noir) reveal the passion he has for producing world class wines.
Hansen got into the winemaking world after working 14 years as a commercial product photographer for advertising agencies in southern California. In 1985 Hansen decided, “life is only so long.” He’d lived well and enjoyed every minute but was ready to do something different. A long time wine aficionado, he moved to Northern California for a slower pace.
He soon landed a job working at a vineyard and winery in Napa Valley. “We made high end Cabernet Sauvignon,” says Hansen. For the next seven years he immersed himself into learning every part of the industry from grape growing to winemaking to sales. “I used to travel six months a year, going between a dozen states dealing with a multitude of distributors,” he says.
During those years he visited vineyards around northern California, including Mendocino County where he especially loved to spend time on the coast. In 2002 Hansen came upon Joe Harris’s Costa Vineyard in Comptche. He knew this was special. Wanting to do something on a smaller scale Hansen started making Pinot Noir from Harris’s vineyard and also from another Comptche vineyard owned by John Peterson. “His vines grow 200 feet from the Comptche Store,” says Hansen.
“Making wine from Pinot Noir grapes is not the easiest way to go into winemaking,” he says. He was aware that Pinot Noir grapes present persnickety challenges. But he loves Pinot Noir even though “it is the hardest grape to grow and make into wine.” Pinot Noir grapes are affected more than most other grapes by weather, their ability to ripen and by temperature fluctuations both on and off the vine. Their luscious potential can also be thwarted during the winemaking process.
Hansen decides when to pick grapes by tasting them rather than with a special instrument that measures sugar or acidity. He has a favorite type of French oak barrel and is specific about the yeast he adds and the fermentation temperatures. “Winemaking is like babysitting,” he philosophizes, and acknowledges that the best time the grapes spend is in the vineyard.
Hansen knew enough about winemaking and Pinot Noir in particular that there was something special about the Comptche vineyards. “You can make an OK wine from average grapes, but great grapes have a chance to make great wine! From the first wine I made from those Comptche grapes I was realizing my dream.”
He named his winery Lula, his maternal grandmother’s first name. She was born in 1879, in the Oklahoma Territory (Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907). In 1899 she married Frank Brock, Hansen’s grandfather.
Hansen wanted to honor Lula because “she taught me about never losing faith when all seems lost.” Hansen describes her as a woman who only had a seventh grade education. She picked cotton, did laundry for other people and was a seamstress. Two of her children died and she was widowed young but never felt sorry for herself. She used to say, “no matter how bad things seem, tomorrow will be a better day.” She lived to be 99 years old. “I know that whatever inner strength I have mostly comes from what she taught me about life,” he says.
Hansen drives from his home in Mendocino to the tasting room four days a week. He is in his element meeting people and sharing his wines. “Then I go home and see the sunset over the ocean,” he smiles. As the advertising photographer turned winemaker puts it, “where you start and where you end up is sometimes a surprise.”
Tasting Notes: The bright fruity aroma and complex depth of Lulu’s 2007 Pinot Noir complemented lamb sausages made by Magruder in Potter Valley and campanelle pasta with wild morel and porcini mushroom sauce. Hansen recommends the Pinot with St. George cheese made in Point Reyes and Castelleno’s green olives from Spain.
