2017 Handley Pinot Noir Yorkville Highlands 750 ml

The piercing, delicate 2017 Handley Pinot Noir is a rarity: an affordable bottle boasting a splendid combo of fine-boned elegance and bang-for-your-buck value that makes it hands-down one of the smartest buys you’ll find in North Coast Pinot.

It might sound too good to be true, and it nearly was. This extremely small-production wine, sourced from a single vineyard in the Yorkville Highlands, was originally destined to be a tasting room-only offering. But the disruptions of the past year forced a pivot, and we worked to make Wine Access the home of this incredible bottle. 

Founded by Milla Handley—anointed “The Pioneer Queen of Anderson Valley Pinot” by Wine Spectator—Handley Cellars is one of the region's benchmark estates. They were making moderate-alcohol, high-acid, gently oaked Pinot in the 1980s, when winemakers elsewhere were writing off Anderson Valley as too remote and cold to produce world-class wines.

Sadly, Milla Handley passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see the skeptics proven wrong. Her legacy can be seen in the legion of top-rated wineries—including Rhys, Littorai, Williams Selyem—that now gravitate to Anderson Valley to make wines of restraint and nuance. You can also feel it in this bottle: the epitome of the style she dedicated her career to producing.  

The Yorkville Highlands AVA, located at the southern end of Mendocino County, experiences wide temperature swings during the growing season, with chilly nights that can clock in at 40–50 degrees lower than in the day. Mornings arrive blanketed by a marine fog that cloaks grapes in cool, moist ocean air, preserving high-toned vibrancy. Grown in thin gravel soils, this wine stunned us and left us wishing we had more.