Pleasant Valley Vineyards

Open: April - September

"Pleasant Valley Vineyards where we utilize only old world wine making technics and believe that great wine is made from perfect grapes with minimal intervention allowing the fruit to express the essence of wine.

Pleasant Valley Vineyards was established by Craig and Cathy Handley in 1996. Nestled in its own private enclave, our family estate vines surround a cathedral grove of coastal redwoods. There are two petite vineyards of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay planted in select French Dijon clones. The property encompasses a five-acre bowl on the western ridge within Pleasant Valley in Aptos, California, a part of the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation.

Only a short distance from the Monterey Bay, Pleasant Valley possesses its own unique microclimate of warm days and tempered nights that allows the vines to gradually produce and mature fruit with intense varietal characteristics and complexity. Each vine, and the grape clusters produced, are selectively nurtured, gently hand pruned, hedged, leafed and harvested. Our limited release wines are meticulously handcrafted exclusively from our estate-grown fruit and bottled on-site. Our chardonnay is made in the sur lie style and our Pinot Noir from whole berry fruit. The wines are aged exclusively in small French oak barrels of medium and medium plus toast and held in precise climate controlled chambers.

Pleasant Valley Vineyards also offers other wine varietals from select regions the Santa Cruz Mountains, Amador County, Sonoma Coast and Paso Robles. The grapes that make these non-estate wines are carefully selected for their complex characteristics. The fruit is brought on-site to be processed. All wines are produced in small lots to focus on the quality expected of a Pleasant Valley Vineyards handcrafted wine."