Western wine tasting
by Julie Carter
The sight of a pretty girl will stop a cowboy in his tracks
every time. Furthermore, he will do and say things completely contrary to the
“pre-pretty girl” man you know him to be. This story is one of those times.
Wes was a cowboy working for a rancher with a big chunk of
New Mexico country to tend. During the early days of his job, he became aware
that his boss had a daughter in an Ivy League college somewhere in the
direction of “back East.”
Winter passed, heifers were about done calving, brandings
were on the horizon and summer would soon be here. Life was very “cowboy”good.
Then Pretty Girl came home for Spring Break and the cowboy’s
world turned upside down.
The celebratory barbeque at the ranch gave Wes a little time
to visit with Pretty Girl and he knew right-off she was way out of his social
league as she chatted about opera, Broadway openings and formal dinner parties.
With some cowboy boldness, he decided he’d take a run at her
by holding a wine tasting. How hard could it be?
Like most cowboys, Wes liked to help the Colorado folks out
with their brewery success and occasionally tried to help the Kentucky folks
with their sour mash business. He knew he was going to have to get some
schooling on the finer points of wine tasting.
Cowboys are experts at many things, capable of hard work
with cattle, horses, fences, and equipment as well as making the hard business
decisions required for a modern ranching operation. What they don’t know, they
aren’t afraid to ask about from someone who has a few more years and little
more experience.
After conferring with a few of the hands in the bunkhouse
that night, it was the consensus that an expert was required. Their collective
thoughts pointed in the direction of the windmill man who was known to be able
to fix anything and tell you a little bit about practically everything.
In a phone call to this recommended universal expert, Wes
was briefed on vintage, bouquet, body, sediment and all the various attributes
of fine wine. The windmill man spoke with such knowledge and authority, the
cowboy was duly impressed. He gave a brief pause to a curious thought as to
where this windmill man might have gotten his knowledge, but was in no position
to question it.
It was clear his plan would be to invite Pretty Girl to
share a little wine with him the next time she was home.
Back to work he went, taking more notice than ever to the
possibilities of the ranch. In his daydreams he envisioned Pretty Girl bringing
him his supper after a hard day’s work on the ranch he had married. By the time
she actually came home again, he was in love.
It was summer, so the cowboy invited her on a picnic to a
pretty spot on the ranch with wine to be the main feature. They set a date and
the cowboy whistled his way through his work for the next several days.
As will happen at a ranch, things didn’t go as planned. He was
down to choosing between a trip to town to get the wine or helping a late
calving heifer through her birthing ordeal. In a bind, he called the windmill
man who agreed to bring him some wine before the big date.
Shined up and washed behind the ears, Wes picked the girl up
at the boss’s house and headed down the road to the spot on the creek he’d
selected. They talked and laughed and the afternoon progressed about as
smoothly as he could have hoped.
He might have actually realized his dream of capturing
Pretty Girl and the ranch -- if only the windmill man had thought to buy wine
in bottle instead of a box.
Julie can be reached
for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com.
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