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Wine is a senses sensation, even without seeing it

By Shannon Burkey

Wine--from the color, to the smell, to the taste--is usually a feast that tantalizes all the senses.

But a group from the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, who recently toured Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards in Saratoga, will tell you that you don't need to be able to see to enjoy a good wine. In fact, the nose and the mouth are really all that's needed.

"Sight is one of the least necessary senses for wine appreciation," winemaker Bill Cooper said. "We're going to provide a unique wine sensatory experience for people who are unable to see what the rest of us do."

Nearly 20 people, all with different degrees of sight impairment, were along for Cooper's sensory winery tour.

The tour began in the vineyards, and as Cooper described the way the vines grow and are taken care of, blind visitors felt the canes, leaves, grapes and trellising to get the full effect.

"Being able to touch the vines and knowing the thicker they are, the older they are, was awesome," said Albert Izquierdo, a former VTA mechanic who lost his sight four years ago to diabetes.

Next, the tour moved to the crush pad and tanks, where Cooper explained the vinification process in great detail so his visitors could visualize the process in their minds. Here visitors were able to taste wine in its fermentation stage.

Barrel tasting and touching came next, then it was off to the tasting room to sample the end products.

As Tom Slack, a former Lockheed Martin aerospace engineer, waited to taste the 1999 George's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, he said he has always had an appreciation of wine. Before losing his sight 10 years ago, he said he had been on many winery tours.

"I was very impressed with this place," Slack said. "I have never been on a tour as informative as this one."

Each month, the blind center, which is the only agency in San Jose that provides services to the blind, forms tours for its members to get out and experience their community the way anyone else would.

In the past, the group has taken trips to Bay Meadows, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, local restaurants and the San Jose Art Museum, where they were allowed to put on gloves and touch the art pieces. But this month there were many requests for wine tasting, according to education and recreation supervisor, Laura Zucchini.

"Everyone had been wanting to visit a winery, and they had a blast," Zucchini said. "They didn't treat them any differently; they were just a lot more descriptive during the tour."

When Izquierdo began to lose his sight, doctors told him that it would be a long, slow process, but within 10 months it was completely gone. It's trips such as this one that he said help him deal with his fairly recent loss.

"This outing really helped me out and let me know that there is still life out there," Izquierdo said, as he sipped on his favorite wine of the day--the viogner--which he asked his wife, who was along to help guide him through the tour, to purchase for him.

The purpose of the winery tour and the other outings the group takes is to teach independence, according to Zucchini.

"By taking them on these trips, it is proving to them that they can improve their independence so that they can go out and do everything that we do."

And now, armed with a few new bottles of wine and their newly acquired knowledge, that includes enjoying a little bit of vino every now and then.