Lovely Wine Country Day

When My Beloved's brother was in town from Cape Cod this past weekend, the weather was perfectly lovely so we decided to introduce him and his wife to our favorite winery, the elegant Ferrari-Carano in Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg. Ted's wife, Kim, is an avid gardener, so we knew she'd love touring the beautifully tended grounds at Ferrari-Carano, complete with a waterfall and a pond with a serene bronze statue of a crane. It's a lovely setting for some of the best wines MB and I have found.

We took Cora along, since she counts any day out with us as an adventure not to be missed, and would rather wait patiently in the car than stay home alone. She was good as gold during our picnic in the square at Healdsburg. She waited under a shady tree at the first winery we visited. She's awfully good and she adds to our enjoyment.

Most of the time.

We arrived at Ferrari-Carano a few minutes before the carload of relatives so, armed with cleanup baggies, I took Cora on her retractable leash to stretch her legs until they arrived, noting a conspicuous sign that said no dogs were allowed into the grounds of the winery. No problem; I certainly understood that such carefully tended gardens deserved respect and appreciation without canine complications.

There was an amazingly beautiful, big rooster in full resplendent plumage posing on the lawn by the parking lot, looking as if he had enough testosterone and attitude to actually challenge me, so I gave him a wide berth. Cora, however, noticed him only when he moved, with which she lunged to the end of her leash, pulling it right out of my hand, and took off after the cocky cockerel! If she hadn't had the plastic housing of the retractable leash bouncing along around her legs, she'd have surely caught him - he was ahead by only the merest whisper.

She chased him around a tree, then off into the shrubbery with me shouting, "No! No! NO!" as I ran along behind, vainly trying to grab the leash again as they disappeared into the bushes where I couldn't follow. I tore around to the garden side and through the iron gate to find Cora completely immersed in the pond, thrashing back and forth under the waterfall.

The trailing leash caught on a rock in the pool and, as Cora tried another side of the pond to exit, it tangled around the elegant legs of the bronze crane and toppled it in slow, slow motion into the water as the enraged gardener glared from me to the dog and back at me.

Finally stopped by the tangled leash, Cora climbed out of the pool and submitted to being caught, but she promptly added insult to injury by shaking, spraying me and the furious gardener liberally with pond water. I returned to the car, subdued, mortified and dirty, with a panting, dripping dog to retrieve a beach towel just as the carload of relatives pulled up. They actually thought it was funny. Heaven only knows where the rooster ended up - I'm sure his heart rate still hasn't returned to normal!

I have never needed a glass of wine quite so much as I did that day. I bellied up to the elegant Enoteca bar, pond water and all, and as the other patrons edged away from my smelly self, thanked heaven for the generous tastings they pour at Ferrari-Carano.

If you click on this link, you will see where I borrowed the image of the rooster. My thanks to them.