Wine Dog Day

Yesterday was National Dog Day. Every day is a day for something. So, why can't I designate? I am designating today, at least on this blog as Wine Dog Story Day. 

Lots of wineries have their wine dogs. But, let's take a drive to visit a most unique wine dog, and while we're at it, let's drink some wine.

We fly into Phoenix (Arizona) Sky Harbor International Airport. Heading out on the twisty turny roads, particularly from the round car rental center, spending a brief period on Interstate 10 before heading north on Interstate 17. Heading north, we climb, and climb some more. We actually weren't going to drink wine. We were headed to Sedona (if you've never been to Sedona, you are missing out on one of the most beautiful towns you will ever see). After exiting I-17 and heading toward Sedona, continuing north and still climbing on the local roads, we see a small sign that says "Wine."

Why not? Let's take a little detour. So, we drive in on the dirt road thankful that the car is a rental. There are ruts, crevasses, small boulders, and on both our left and right, grapevines. We see a sign for a tasting room and pull up, and there we are, parking, greeted by a creature with a head larger than a bowling ball.

We catch the attention of a winery worker and ask him the dog's name. He shrugs his shoulders and says in a tone clearly indicating that he does not know, "Big." Big would have been an appropriate name. But, it turns out they called him Vinny, shoet for Vineyard. Still a puppy, he weighed in at more than 250 pounds or so we were told. Vinny had free run of the winery and frankly, who could stop him?

So, we entered the tasting room and this was truly a tale of two visits. The first time we were there, our visit was quite pleasand and welcoming, the wine was good but definitely not great, but it was inexpensive. We left with a decent-sized purchase of bottles all priced in the $12-20 range. That's not bad. When we went back, however, about three years later, Vinny was still there and even bigger, but the friendliness of the winery had left, the wines were no better, but the prices had easily doubled. These were not $40 wines. And, this morning, I went to their website. Their Estate Zinfandel, the pride of their winery is now $55. 

Vinny was a nice story -- massive, photogenic in a curious way (of course, I can't find a picture of him, and happy-go-lucky -- but once they got full of themselves, the winery was less so.

I'm certain Vinny has passed now. There is no way that a dog that large could be that long-lived. But, we will always remember Vinny, the BIG wine dog.


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