A Garden for the Senses

Wine Tributaries
by Tim Hayes & John Koetzner

How many times have you heard someone say, "Umm, that smells delicious, what is it?" If you are like most of us, we are constantly attempting to provide a description for the aromas that fill the air or the places we encounter. In the wine business, olfactory evaluation of wine is the step that follows a visual inspection of a wine's appearance for color and clarity, and it is the step that gives an initial impression of what one should expect as the wine comes in contact with the palate. In many cases those very smells will be reinforced as tastes too.

Often, checking a wine's bouquet will alert us to any defects a wine might have, but more importantly, it will transport us to the vineyards where the grapes are grown as we associate aromas. This gives us a connection back to the land and the kinds of crops that sometimes find their way into wine descriptions.

While most people wonder where winemakers, wine judges, wine writers, sommeliers, and other wine professionals come up with this elaborate lingo as they sniff and chew wines, Kendall-Jackson has given it a place to be seen. And even if you missed the annual Tomato Festival at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center, there is still another reason to make a visit: the culinary gardens.

Just past the viticulture display that shows different grape varietals and trellising methods, K-J has planted a Red Wine Sensory Garden and a White Wine Sensory Garden that covers plants associated with different grapes. Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon plant descriptors are planted in different corners of the Red Wine Sensory Garden. Similarly, the White Wine Sensory Garden has plantings for those descriptors used with Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and Muscat.

If one visits the corner of the Red Wine sensory Garden associated with the Cabernet family, there are plantings of cherry, black currant, tobacco, mint, bell pepper, oregano, and blackberry labeled for viewing. Likewise, in the White Wine Sensory Garden, a corner dedicated to the floral varietals such as Gewurztraminer includes jasmine, honeysuckle, rose, lilac, pineapple sage, apricot, pear, nectarine, grapefruit and lime.

All of this was done with educating visitors in mind, and they encourage folks to visit the gardens with a glass of wine and find the associations from smelling and sampling in the gardens. As Ed Walsh, chef for Kendall-Jackson said, "It's a tactile way for people to associate what they hear about wine." He worked with Jeff Dawson, who developed the gardens at Fetzer, to develop the gardens at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center, but Dawson has since moved on and David Gonzalez now tends them with Walsh and his wife Tess lending a hand.

Besides the wine sensory gardens, there are four international gardens with plants and herbs that are associated with foods from those regions and which are often paired with particular wines. Walsh noted, "We have a French Garden, Italian Garden, South American Garden and Asian Garden. The ultimate challenge is to make those pairings that work well for the wine and food to complement each other. I use ingredients fresh from the gardens. They rarely hit the refrigerator."

Farther back on the property, Kendall-Jackson has other gardens devoted to vegetable trials that include 200 hundred tomato varieties, sixty pepper varieties, forty eggplants varieties, and sixteen garlic varieties. Besides this garden, they also have a seed saving garden, a beneficial insect area, and a greenhouse for starting plants. Walsh said, "We're having trouble with tropicals. Someone turned off the heater in the greenhouse last winter and we lost some stuff." Despite any setbacks in the greenhouse, the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center property is producing enough produce that they are supplying produce for a number of restaurants too, including Acre in Healdsburg.

So the next time you hear someone talking about wine that went well with a particular food, or say that a Cabernet Sauvignon had a black currant smell or taste, you can add to the discussion by making a visit to the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center. There, you can touch the aromas and flavors of wines.

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