Handley Cellars Zinfandel

Tasting notes & discussion 12

Typically $32/bottle from Handley Cellars
Vintage 2018 from the Redwood Valley
Available for AZ; CA; CO; DC; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Handley Cellars: “Handley Cellars is a small, family-owned winery in California’s Mendocino County. Bonded in 1982, we produce around 9000 cases of wine a year. Our quality starts with our CCOF Certified Organic Estate Vineyards in Anderson Valley. We are located at the northwest end of the Anderson Valley on 59 acres of the original Guntly Ranch.”

Handley Dandley

TASTING NOTES: “The head-pruned vines from Kazmet Ranch, CCOF Organic Certified, are dry farmed, providing concentrated old vine flavors. This wine has jammy aromas of blackberry pie with undertones of sage and green peppercorn. It exhibits flavors of brambly berry, dark plum, and peach with notes of licorice and sandalwood. Medium-bodied, rich and round in the mouth with noticeable acidity focusing the persistent fruit on the finish. A small addition of Petite Sirah (10%) adds a little tannin structure and complexity to the blend.” (AbV 15.2%, pH 3.70, TA 5.6 g/L)

VARIETALS: 90% Zinfandel, 10% Petite Sirah

BARRELS: 18 months in French oak, 20% new.

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: Handy-dandy! Like the famed handy-dandy notebook of Blues Clues.

How do you end up with something like handy-dandy? Rhyming reduplication, of course! That’s when you take one word and double it, except you change the first bit to something different. It has basically the same meaning of handy, though I guess that it also could’ve referred to a bribe at some point.

Some people have thought that it had something to do with dandle, but it seems like handy-dandy had existed in some fashion for over a century before dandle was a thing. Dandle means to shake, though, so handy-dandy ended up meaning a handshake for a bit too.

Handley Cellars Zinfandel

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