We all have our prejudices. Me, I reflexively avoid wines (okay, American wines) named after animals (okay, non-human animals). So, faced with last night's wine list, I might've skipped the Donkey and Goat 2014 Mendocino County Pinot Noir, Helluva Vineyard, but for Brian K. Miller's evangelism here. I'm glad I didn't! A lovely bottle. A whiff of goat-pen (to be expected, I suppose) blows off quickly and reveals clean, delicate layers of sour cherry, tobacco, earth, and spice (in the cardamom-coriander range, more than baking spices or pepper). Harmonious and food-friendly, it was the second excellent discovery of the night, along with the restaurant itself (Two, on West Grand).
Postscript: I don't know a lot about the variations of terroir in the Anderson Valley, but this is a delicate enough wine that I guessed it to be from a vineyard closer to the coast. This morning, googling, I see that Helluva turns out to be near Boonville, whose wines I also see characterized as being relatively "fruit-forward" compared to those from sites further west. In search of further insight, I click on one article, titled "A Lesson on Terroir," that compares a bunch of Handley wines from different Anderson Valley vineyards. The article's tasting note on Handley's Helluva Vineyard Pinot? "You’ll love the flavors of strawberry mousse and raspberry coulis on vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting."
I don't know what to say, so I'll just repeat that we all have our prejudices. (And maybe I'll feed my slice of vanilla cake to the goat).
