Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/6221
UP Until relatively recently, wineries in Sonoma County were often dynastic propositions, passed from one generation to the next by those bonded by more than a shared name on the label. Many family wineries have succumbed to corporate acquisition or have faced extinction for a variety of reasons. Not so for Healdsburg's Hanna Winery & Vineyards, overseen by President Chris Hanna since the early '90s. "I often feel like we're a bit of a dinosaur," laughs Hanna, who attributes her winery's success to the personal investment that comes with running a family business. "If someone doesn't like your wine, as thick of a skin as you might have, you take it personally," admits Hanna, though this seldom occurs as the 90-plus point scores garnered by her flagship Sauvignon Blanc might suggest. "That's harder to do when you're not personally invested." Founded by her father, a San Francisco–based cardiac surgeon who would bring the Hanna clan to Sonoma County as a weekend retreat, the property that would become Hanna Winery & Vineyards was once the definition of rustic. According to Hanna, calling the property a "ranch house" would be kind. Her term is "'40s-era ramshackle shack," which was once festooned with chickens, 12 head of steer roaming the grounds and "a billy goat tied up in yard." The Hanna kids, of course, loved it—Chris among them, whose rural reveries include becoming "muddy, dirty and having a ball and making home- made wine." HannaWinery & Vineyards Chris Hanna knows the meaning of family values at by Daedalus Howell / photos by Ryan Lely Hanna Vineyards property in the Alexander Valley.