When I was little, we went out on my great-uncle’s farm in Illinois one day, while he was figuring out where to dig a new well. My great-uncle had hired a dowser, which was the preferred Midwestern term for a “water witch†— someone who has the natural ability to detect water underground. In this case, the dowser used a forked stick of a certain type of new wood, I think it might have been a fruit tree. That day, the dowser let me try holding the forked stick: I didn’t feel anything. He let my sister try, and the dowsing rod went wild, leading her right to a small source of water, before the dowser had found it.
(In the end, yes, the dowser found a large source of water, and yes, they dug a well, and yes, it worked.)
So as soon as I heard that Marc Mondavi’s company was sending me a dowsing rod with their Divining Rod wines, I couldn’t wait for my sister to visit. As luck would have it, the package kept getting delayed different places, and I finally received it the day before she left. She was in the middle of packing when I made her go out into the yard to do some of the dowsing exercises recommended in the accompanying booklet. I tried holding the dowsing rods (metal, in this case) and nothing much happened. She tried, and the rods really started moving, crossing over each other and leading her around the yard – to where we later found out was the location of the water main near the street. Somehow, she ended up packing the rods, too…
What about the wines? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There’s a 2010 Alexander Valley Cab: red fruit-y, with mild tannins, pleasant, better with casual food – like pizza and lasagna — than without. And though I have had problems with Chardonnay from this area in the past, Divining Rod is making steps in the right direction: this 2010 from the Santa Lucia Highlands is less flabby than others, more structured, offering some fruit without being totally overwhelming.
