Made With: Pinot noir
Plays Well With: Pork, salmon, lamb and most beef cuts.
Mike tasted this at the Pinot Days tasting in Santa Monica earlier this year. Anne was not able to make it, so we didn’t get an interview. But Mike took lots of notes.
The nose on the Handley from Anderson Valley was closed, meaning that there wasn’t much of an aroma. Now this usually isn’t a good thing, but it worked for this pinot noir out of the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, California, probably because it was relatively young.
A closed nose is common in young wines, so you’ll want to get them some exposure to air before drinking them, either by decanting them into another bottle or (duh) a decanter, or by swirling the stuffings out of the wine while it’s in your glass.
Or you could just leave this one in the bottle a few more years. It’d be worth it. With plenty of tannins still in it, it should age fairly well. Even young, the taste was full of berry fruit with some good acids. The alcohol, at 14.2 percent, is a little on the high side for a pinot, but with some age, the alcohol should integrate with the rest of the wine a little better, making for a more balanced wine.
But if you absolutely can’t wait, try serving it with a grilled steak and salad. Or fried pork chops.