Lazy Days at the Ranch : A Few Ghosts in Beltane’s Cellar, Good Food and Wine All Around

GLEN ELLEN, Calif. — Midway through our breakfast of frittata, papaya, poppy-seed quick loaf and homemade jam, the man from Ohio suddenly sets down his silver fork. “We have a drinking problem,” he announces, confidingly. “There’s more wine in our cellar than we can drink.”

“And it’s getting worse,” his wife replies, a saucy Gracie Allen to the Midwestern George Burns. “Yesterday, we hit Ravenswood, Buena Vista and Gundlach-Bundschu. Today, it’s Piper Sonoma and Rodney Strong.”

A couple from Hawaii, not to be outdone, describe the stalking of premium whites at Sterling, ZD and William Hill.

I keep on eating. No tasting-room pilgrimages for me. Been there, done that.

Aside from lunches at unfamiliar culinary shrines (always a wine-country possibility), I want to stay just where I am, soaking up the slightly bent legacy of Beltane Ranch.

The galleried, two-story, five-bedroom house was built about 1892 by Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant, a reputed San Francisco madam. By most accounts, she was born in slavery in Georgia in the early 1800s. The odd-eyed Pleasant--she is framed in a newspaper clipping on the living room wall--is said to have studied with New Orleans voodoo priestess Marie LaVeau. Arriving in San Francisco at the height of the Gold Rush, Pleasant amassed a fortune in the stock market, operated a string of ultra-fashionable boarding houses, and was an ardent abolitionist and feminist. Later, she was a business partner and intimate of miner-financier Thomas Bell. Though Beltane was one of four Sonoma ranches that she and Bell acquired together, Pleasant died in poverty in 1904. (Though the suspicion is unproved, Bell probably died at Pleasant’s hands.)

On my way to Beltane from San Francisco, I nibble samples at the Sonoma Cheese Factory, a deli on Sonoma Plaza, then order rosemary ham and pesto jack on whole grain--to go. Chips, cookies and cherry juice complete my picnic bag. Because I telephoned Beltane only a day ahead, I will switch rooms after the first night. But the smallest, least expensive back-corner room--furnished with rocking chairs, antique dresser, double bed and walk-in shower--makes up in cozy charm for what it lacks in view.

After bathing, I arrange my supper on an outdoor table. To the left, a dozen brown-and-white cows graze among oaks (“Beltane” was a Celtic festival associated with cattle). In the foreground, a full-color cutting- and fruit garden frames the vineyards and olive trees of the middle distance. Beyond the valley, the fabled, softly rolling golden hills cut the scene in half.

A dark, fluffy cat appears, mewing directively. Leading me past a tennis court bordered by corn and beans, and across a flat, grassy area fitted with bandstand and temporary restrooms that’s used for weddings, it mews again each time I pause to look around. Though we get to know each other somewhat over three days, it never once allows a touch. Assuming it to be the spirit of Mammy Pleasant, I make sure it does not slip into my room at night. After next morning’s breakfast, led by the furry Mammy, I cross a small, sloping grove of young olive trees to examine the vineyard’s ambergris-green clusters of hard, unripe magic.

I consider hiking the circular trail that rises behind the ranch. Instead, I drive across the ridge for lunch at Greystone in St. Helena, the former Christian Brothers Winery that since October 1995 has been the West Coast outpost of the New York-based Culinary Institute of America. There is a small bowl for oil fitted into each bread plate and also wonderful roasted gold and pink baby beets with orange sections and shaved onions, served like soup, with a spoon. For $46 (not including wine, of which plenty is available), I also experience dill-flavored salt cod croquettes with fennel and saffron aioli, fresh pea and asparagus soup with lemon yogurt and chives, grilled quail and figs on lemon risotto and apple tart from the student cooks.

As a digestif, I peer into classrooms presided over by white-jacketed professors, inspect the corkscrew collection assembled by the much-promoted Brother Timothy and buy a cookbook in the gift shop.

Back at Beltane, my clothes have been moved upstairs to a suite furnished with Victorian sofa, oversize mirror, vanity and bookcase. Browsing, I find a first-edition novel by culinary saint M.F.K. Fisher inscribed to Beltane’s owner.

Breakfast brings more winery chat from a new crew of pilgrims. As I pack, the feline Mammy Pleasant stays underfoot. When I try to pet her goodbye, she scurries away.

After a quick revisit to Jack London’s ruined Wolf House in Jack London State Park, I lunch at Kenwood Restaurant, which opened in 1987, opposite the Kenwood Winery on Sonoma Highway.

Though I am the third party at one of the umbrella-shaded, vineyard-side patio tables, two men at the bar already are sniffing their second (at least) glasses of red. All the stools are filled before I leave, as are the tables. Clubby and dressed in pastel sport clothes, wide-brimmed hats and good jewelry, the crowd looks local.

I tuck into crispy, delectable Sonoma duck in cherry sauce with braised endive and slightly scorched potato croquettes. Shellfish chowder with saffron and tomatoes and summer fruit cobbler rise above the dud spuds. Though the wine list reads like a neighborhood address list--notably Chateau St. Jean, Kenwood and Beltane--I have freeways to negotiate and again stick with mineral water.

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Budget for One

LA-San Francisco air fare: $96.80

Car rental (Alamo): 54.16

Beltane Ranch, two nights: 223.40

Lunch, Kenwood Restaurant: 42.00

Lunch, C.I.A.: 45.95

Sonoma Cheese Factory: 11.00

Entrance fee, Jack London Park: 3.00

Golden Gate Bridge toll: 3.00

FINAL TAB: $479.31

Beltane Ranch, 11775 Highway 12 (Sonoma Highway), P.O. Box 395, Glen Ellen, CA 95442; tel. (707) 996-6501.