About Hensel West
Hensel West is a small family wine label founded in 2024 by Will Phelps, a third-generation vintner and grandson of Napa pioneer Joseph Phelps, together with his wife Amanda. After his family sold Joseph Phelps Vineyards to Moet Hennessy in 2022, Will stepped away from wine for a year before starting something deliberately small, where he and Amanda make every decision themselves. Hensel is a longtime family name and Will's own middle name.
The wine is made by Ashley Hepworth, who spent more than twenty years at Joseph Phelps and served as its head winemaker. Syrah is the keystone of the brand, drawn from Larry and Chris Hyde's celebrated vineyard in Carneros, which includes a block grown from cuttings of Joseph Phelps' original 1970s Syrah, known as the Phelps clone. The inaugural Syrah Napa Valley Hyde Vineyard 2024 at $110, co-fermented across three clones and aged sixteen months in 40% new oak.
Alongside the Syrah, Hensel West makes the HWX red blend from heritage Napa vineyards long tied to the Phelps family, including Tench in Oakville, Sleeping Lady in Yountville, and Steltzner in the Stags Leap District, with the wine produced at the Tench winery in Oakville. A small estate vineyard is being established in St. Helena on a parcel that once fed the famed Insignia bottling, and will likely be planted to Cabernet Sauvignon. Production is tiny, around 1,000 cases across three or four bottlings, and the wines are sold through the mailing list rather than a public tasting room.
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