Behind Every Great Vineyard Lies A Great Dog

As a wine buyer for many years, I’ve been pitched everything you can imagine.   From crazy scientist winemakers, to movie-directors-turned-winemakers, to Old World wine making royalty, I’ve met many.  Everyone has some fantastic reason why I should buy their wine (aside from the fact that it’s just damn good juice ).  But one story continues to stick out like a sore thumb.

Several years ago, I was visited by a Spanish winemaker riding along with the sales rep, who tasted me on his wines.  All great grape growers have connections to their land and their vines.  That’s just how they live.  And many happen to have their own version of “man’s best friend.”  Yes, I refer to dogs, but by “their own version” I mean other various species of animal companion.

I’ve met vintners whose cat follows them around the rows of vines, chasing field mice, moles and other various small rodents.  Once, I even met a wine maker who had a pet Orangutan.  Yup, the big furry ape ran around the vineyard, helping pick the ever-so-perfectly-ripened grape clusters.  They even named their premier tete-de-cuvee blend after him.

But this guy was different.  His best friend was a dog.  The scraggly mutt would follow him while he toiled away in the dry, dusty vineyard.  The dog just wouldn’t leave his side .  He noticed that the dog preferred to “do his business” on one specific slope of the vineyard, a small plot that always intrigued him.  And by “him” I mean the human.

This winemaker knew that the aspect and degree of this slope would lend itself to pristine grape growing conditions, not to mention the mineral-laden  soil.  And, shit.  That’s right.  That’s where the dog liked to take a dump.  And this guy said it was one of the reasons why the grapes from here were so special.  Never has a tasting paused so abruptly, with a silence that melts butter.

Well, I’ll be damned.