Family Matters

Scott Betton engineers an escape from the daily grind.

For Scott Betton, any time is a good time to talk about—and taste—wine. As a wine broker, that attitude serves him well, because that’s exactly what he does from morning until night.

“Before going out to visit my clients, I put together a selection of bottles at home that I want them to try,” says Betton. To be sure nothing’s corked—has an unpleasant odor or taste, as from a tainted cork—he samples everything, standing over the kitchen sink, pouring, swirling, sipping and spitting. “I wonder what people think,” he laughs, “when they see me through the window at 8:30 in the morning.”

Betton’s interest in wine surfaced after he graduated from Rice in 1999, landed a position as a chemical engineer and started earning the kind of money that allowed him to become a connoisseur. “Wine wasn’t exactly part of the culture in Midland, Texas, where I grew up,” Betton says. “I thought knowing about it was cool, but the possibility that I’d end up with a career in the wine business was about as likely as me owning a Major League Baseball team.”

The event that changed Betton’s fate was his cousin Lance Campbell’s wedding that same year. That’s where Betton learned that Campbell and his new wife, Brandie, wanted to start a mom-and-pop winery. “The news blew me away,” Betton says. “I loved wine, but it had never occurred to me that it could be a real profession.” The couple invited Betton and another cousin, Kevin Hoelscher, to join them in the venture, and in 2000, Mount Aukum Winery was born.

The new entrepreneurs were hoping to buy five acres, but instead managed to score 80 acres in California’s El Dorado County. The land was at an elevation of 2,615 feet and in sight of the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada range. Betton went for a visit, took one look at the property and decided to hand in his notice. “I was living and working in Austin at the time, and I already had come to the conclusion that engineering was not my thing,” he says. “I sold my Audi, along with just about everything else I owned, bought a truck, moved in with Lance and Brandie and took a seasonal crush job to get a hands-on winemaking education.”

It took about four years for the five acres of vines they put in to be ready. But from the start, the partners have used grapes from other growers to create a variety of wines—including zinfandel, syrah, Viognier and Marsanne—under the Mount Aukum Winery label. Construction of a crushing facility and tasting room was completed in 2004. In need of a salesman for their premium reds and whites, they brought in David Pentoney, an established broker, and Betton worked with him to build the brand.

Originally, the winery was owned by the three cousins and their grandmother, who held a 49 percent share. There was, says Betton, “a lot of Rice in Mount Aukum,” because his grandfather, Roy E. Campbell, also was an alumnus of the university. However, last year, Betton and Hoelscher sold their shares in the winery.

“This was a good move for me, financially,” says the 31-year-old Betton, who now works as a wine broker, selling Mount Aukum and other brands. Still, he admits he misses the excitement of the harvest and following the fruit from vineyard to bottle. “To sell also was the right thing for Mount Aukum,” he says, “because concentrating on my relationships with restaurants and retailers gives me better access and more opportunities to promote our products.”

As a wine broker, Betton sees himself as equal parts educator and salesman. He’s motivated by the sense of satisfaction he gets from turning people on to wine, introducing them to new ones and meeting others who share his enthusiasm for it. “I discovered my passion,” Betton says, “and can’t imagine doing anything else.”