WINERY WHIMSY: If you've ever visited a vineyard, perhaps for a tasting, you know that a winery isn't simply a winery. There are other touches and additions and features to the rambling building sitting next to all of those vines, features that often include a gift shop and/or restaurant and/or performance stage and/or art gallery and/or special events area. It isn't all that unusual, then, for a winery to announced that a fresh add-on is ahead, something that will give those who stop by to purchase a bottle, or sip the just-released merlot, something new to check out. What is a little unusual is when the new addition is mostly populated not by people but rather butterflies and bees. An expansive new garden will debut this summer at Saracina Vineyards in Hopland, and its main residents are in the name: The Bee & Butterfly Garden. There's a party to launch this lovely one-acre spread, complete with an appearance by the garden's designer, Kate Frey (the author of "The Bee Friendly Garden"). Of course, there shall be...
VINO ENJOYMENT as well, and a "casual country picnic" for the noon to 2:30 p.m. affair. The date? It's on Saturday, June 25. The bottles? John Fetzer, Saracina's owner, will be pouring Atrea Skid Rosé as well as "other warm-weather wine favorites." The to-dos, beyond supping, sipping, and the admiring of little buzzing beautiful beasties? Ms. Frey will sign her book, if you want to start your own bee-nice garden at home. Bees, after all, are a friend to nature, and lend love to fruit and the general ripeness and fecundity of a wilder space. This includes grapes, of course, making the new winery garden an ideal addition.
TRULY, it is a good time to browse a winery's gift shop or take in a concert, so those sorts of winery add-ons work. But a natural addition, now and then, to a vineyard's offerings, is as perfect as a sunflower at its peak.
