a publication for
September 2022
VAL DE VIE ESTATE RESIDENTS
The Scent of Spring
W O R D S B Y R E N I E R VA N D E V E N T E R , L’ H U G U E N O T V I N E YA R D S C E L L A R M A S T E R During my time as a winemaking student at Stellenbosch
claim they can ‘hear’ colours, I’ve never met someone
fascinating that we typically have a memory or feeling
University, I worked in tasting rooms on wine farms
who can smell the days of the week. She laughed and
and then only afterwards does our brain recall the
to improve my knowledge and gain experience. I
explained that when she was a child, the grass at her
actual descriptor of what it is that we are smelling. At
specifically remember one day, when a couple walked
family home was always cut on a Friday. The cut grass
L’Huguenot Vineyards, we understand just how powerful
through the door for a wine tasting and we started with a
was the first thing she picked up on the nose of the wine.
the sense of smell can be. We pride ourselves on a
fresh Sauvignon Blanc. The first thing the lady mentioned,
As part of my studies, I specialised in the sensorial
winemaking process that isn’t based purely on science,
was that the wine smelled like a Friday! Personally, I
evaluation of wines. We went into great depth on how
but on the art of smell too. We hope that all of our wines
thought it had aromas of passionfruit or gooseberries, or
olfactory systems – which are responsible for smell and
create a pleasurable feeling or memory, each and every
maybe even something green like peppers. I asked her
taste – work and the pathways they follow in the brain
time you taste them and that those aromas keep you
what she meant, because although I’ve heard people
when you experience a smell or aroma. I still find it
coming back for more.