Handley Cellars

Had this at a party just after it was released, and did a double-take. Mentally, I was still back on Handley’s 2004 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, but this was clearly a different wine with a different strategy from the label’s other Pinots (which carry an Anderson Valley appellation). Turns out it’s a combination of Handley’s Anderson Valley estate fruit and two other sources in Mendocino County: Rhodes Vineyard in Redwood Valley and Iron Oak Vineyard in Potter Valley. Three-fourths of the fruit came from these two warm inland areas, giving the fruit flavors a brightness and clarity that is unusual in wines made only from cold-climate areas like Anderson Valley.

The wine’s raspberry aromas and flavors are almost mountain-clean in their purity, while the wine’s foundation swirls with smoke and earth that came from the ground and the grape, not new oak (only 13% of the barrels were new). In your mouth, this is definitely a sneaker wine that conceals its size and power until they're in command of your mouth. The alcohol (14.5%) is in line with the ripeness, and the raw-silk texture includes good-gripping acidity to make your mouth water. All this for $22.

Reviewed April 2, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.