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Betwixt, “Helluva Vineyard” Pinot Noir

California, United States 2015 (750mL)
$34.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Betwixt, “Helluva Vineyard” Pinot Noir

For many people in the wine business, at some point it’s not enough to serve and/or sell wine—the desire to make some becomes too great to ignore. We’ve featured many sellers-turned-makers here at SommSelect (Greg Harrington of Gramercy Cellars in Washington; Erin Nuccio of Evesham Wood/Haden Fig in Oregon; Raj Parr of Domaine de la Côte in California), and today we add British expat Tim Telli to the list.
Telli is a talented “urban winemaker” sourcing premium grapes from around California and turning them into wine in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he also lives with his family. His Betwixt label is a recent, and very exciting, discovery for us—this Anderson Valley Pinot Noir from the “Helluva Vineyard” in Boonville is a beautiful evocation of its place of origin and an extremely well-priced one at that. Telli produced just 85 cases of this critically acclaimed 2015, showing some pretty precocious talent for someone who not too long ago was working in wine retail and fantasizing about one day having his name on a bottle. And let me assure you that while Tim may be a nice guy with an inspiring story, we wouldn’t be offering this wine if it wasn’t great. This balanced, perfumed, cool-climate Pinot Noir has a quality-to-price ratio as high as any domestic Pinot Noir we’ve featured all year. We were offered a small chunk of his tiny production to share with our subscribers, and if this 2015 is any indication, I suspect you’ll be hearing more about Tim Telli here and elsewhere.
If you left San Francisco and drove north on 101 until you hit Route 128, you’d hit Anderson Valley in about three hours. It’s a land of rolling hills and coastal fog in still-rural Mendocino County, with a more rustic, less-traveled feel in comparison to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. The Helluva Vineyard is a 10-acre site in Boonville (where some older residents still speak a local dialect called Boontling, a mix of English, Gaelic, and Spanish spawned in the 1800s) that has supplied fruit to many noteworthy wineries, including Handley and Smith-Story. Telli was first offered fruit from the site in 2014, and was thrilled to get the chance to work with it again in 2015—a drought-stressed year that delivered concentrated fruit which, thanks to Anderson Valley’s cooler temperatures, managed to retain its acidity and freshness.

Of the many things that impressed me about this wine—its energy, its aromatics, its value-for-dollar—perhaps what impressed me most is that Telli only started making wine a few years ago. Originally from West Sussex, England, he had been feeling the pull of wine even before moving out to California, but said it was “all over” once he got a job in wine retail. After learning all he could about the bottles in the shop, he started taking weeks off for wine harvests, then interned at local wineries. After he fell headlong into the winemaking rabbit hole, he honed his skills at AP Vin, August West, and ROAR before leaving to make his first wines in 2012—a half-ton of Grenache, and a Marsanne/Roussane white blend that Robert Parker gave 92 points. This 2015 is, as noted above, just his second vintage working with Helluva Vineyard; the wine was fermented using only native yeasts and was aged 15 months in French oak barrels, of which only 28% were new.

In the glass, the 2015 Betwixt “Helluva Vineyard” Pinot Noir is a bright, reflective ruby-red with garnet and pink highlights at the rim. Where many Anderson Valley Pinots can be bright and red-fruited but also a little wan, this one has a firm tannic structure and great acidity lending it backbone and drive. The nose is packed with notes of wild strawberry, rhubarb, dried orange peel, goji berry, rose petal, crushed earth, a touch of mushroom powder, and has an accent of exotic spices. It is medium-bodied, with a beautiful core of sweetness that moves to a savory and beautifully fresh finish. Its push-pull of sweet/savory had me thinking of some of the greats from further north in Oregon, and while it is drinking beautifully now, it has the potential to age 5-10 years if kept well. Ideally, pull the cork one hour before serving at cellar temp in large Burgundy stems. Its energy and mineral savor will lend it great versatility with food—I feel, as I often do with Pinot Noir, that you could throw a dart at a list of recipes and get a great pairing. Check out the attached recipe as we transition into fall; this wine will help make it a smooth one. Enjoy!
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Country
United States
Region
California
Sub-Region
United StatesAnderson Valley
Soil
Clay-Loam
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Pinot Noir 100%
Alcohol
14.1
OAK
28% New French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now
Decanting
Optional
Pairing
Duck Stew

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

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