Top image: Patrick and Jacqui Pols from Seven Oaks
Does your nose know its citrus from its apple? Chocolate from coffee and Strawberry from Blackcurrant? Well, Seven Oaks, the boutique family-owned winery in the Breedekloof, has now incorporated a truly unique feature at its tasting-venue to help teach people more about wine aromas, something owner Patrick Pols believes to be the first in the South African winelands.
The feature in question is the Theatre of Aromas, an intimate contained space filled with Perspex containers each offering a specific aroma that is associated with various wines. In the Theatre of Aromas, visitors can not only expose their olfactory senses to a collection of individual scents, but can have fun in attempting to identify the various aromas as well as to link them to those scents found in certain wines.
Patrick says the idea of a Theatre of Aromas was realised when he and his wife Jacqui visited the Mendoza wine region in Argentina. “We found such a space offering visitors the adventure of aroma discovery, and being wine people we had a terrific time being exposed to different scents, such as citrus, pepper and flowers, that had been captured individually allowing the visitor to experience this crucial element of wine appreciation,” says Pols.
Back at the Seven Oaks winery, which is situated an hour from Cape Town on the road to Wolseley, Patrick and Jacqui were adamant to complement the tourist tasting and vineyard experience with the unique offering of isolated aromas.
“We had the Perspex containers manufactured, and spent weeks selecting the various scents,” says Patrick, “and with the over 28 bowls each offering a different aroma, we believe Seven Oaks has created a truly unique tourist experience for both the wine expert and novice alike.”
The experience is for persons of wine-drinking age only and with no more than four people allowed in the Theatre of Aromas at one time, this is a quiet space for people to focus on their sense of smell.
“With its dimmed lights and set behind a closed curtain, the visitor is allowed to solely focus on what his or her sense of smell is experiencing in each of the containers,” says Patrick. “Next to each container is a QR code, sending the visitor to the aroma presented in the container, allowing him or her to guess the specific scent before having it identified. Through this you can thus not only determine what a keen sniffer you are, but can also experience these focused aromas that, once imprinted in memory, will complement your wine appreciation experience.”
Entry to the Seven Oaks Theatre of Aromas is is R50 per person or R80, which includes the five Seven Oaks Wines tastings. In addition, Seven Oaks has a wine-mobile for tastings in the vineyards, a new once a month fine dining pop-up restaurant called Salt of the Earth, and a new tasting venue on the Garden Route.
