There are gardens that exist to be beautiful, and gardens that exist to teach. Beringer's sensory garden does both. Located behind the seventeen-room historic Rhine House in St. Helena, it's a teaching venue in the truest sense — planted with herbs, flowers, and aromatics specifically chosen to help guests understand what they're tasting in a glass of wine.
Beringer's wine educators describe it as a scratch-and-sniff playground: a compendium of smells and textures that make wine components tangible. Rosemary before a savory Cabernet. Lavender before a floral white. The garden puts language around something that can otherwise feel abstract — and it's one of the reasons Beringer was included in Gather.
At a Glance
- Book: Gather — a richly photographed California wine country cookbook
- Focus: Thirteen of California's most ambitious winery culinary gardens and the dishes they inspire
- Recipes: More than 60 wine-friendly recipes
- Beringer's Garden: Located behind the historic Rhine House, St. Helena — a sensory teaching garden used during the Taste of Beringer Tour
- Beringer Recipe Pairings: Five featured dishes paired with wines from across the portfolio
About Gather
Gather is a cookbook built around a specific idea: that the gardens at California's great wineries are a direct expression of the wines produced there. The herbs, vegetables, and edible plants that wineries cultivate aren't just ornamental — they shape the food that's served, influence how wine educators talk about flavor, and reflect the terroir and culinary philosophy of each estate.
The book covers thirteen wineries and more than 60 recipes, photographed to capture the visual richness of California wine country in a way that translates to the home kitchen. Each recipe is designed to be wine-friendly — to enhance and complement the wines it's served alongside, rather than compete with them.
Beringer's Sensory Garden
Beringer's sensory garden sits behind the Rhine House, a seventeen-room Victorian mansion built in 1884 by Frederick Beringer. The garden is planted with herbs and aromatics that correspond to the flavor profiles found in Beringer's wines — rosemary, lavender, thyme, and others that wine educators use to make tasting notes more vivid and accessible for guests.
It's an active part of the Taste of Beringer Tour, where guests walk through the garden before their seated tasting, engaging their senses before the first pour. The garden functions as a primer — connecting the language of wine to something guests can smell, touch, and taste directly.
Featured Beringer Recipe Pairings
Gather includes five recipe pairings from the Beringer portfolio, spanning white wines, red wines, and dessert:
- Crostini with White Bean Puree and Fava Bean Pesto — paired with Alluvium Blanc
- Spring Lettuces with Sugar Snap Peas and Roasted Carrots — paired with Private Reserve Chardonnay
- Golden Beet Gazpacho — paired with Luminus Chardonnay
- Lamb Rib Chops with Garden-Vegetable Couscous — paired with Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
- German Honey Cake with Orange Mascarpone — paired with Nightingale
The pairings reflect Beringer's longstanding approach to food and wine: each dish is chosen to find common ground with the wine's aromatics and structure, rather than simply accompanying it. The spring lettuces and Private Reserve Chardonnay pairing, for example, works because the wine's acidity, citrus notes, and subtle oak find a counterpoint in the crunch, sweetness, and earthiness of the vegetables. The lamb rib chops with Knights Valley Reserve Cab is a more classic match — the wine's dark fruit and structure against the richness of the meat and the herbal depth of the couscous.
The Taste of Beringer Tour
The sensory garden is the opening act of the Taste of Beringer Tour — Beringer's signature guided tasting experience. After walking the gardens, guests settle into the Rhine House for a seated tasting of winery-exclusive and reserve wines, with seasonal bites from Beringer's in-house culinary team paired to each pour.
It's the same philosophy that runs through Gather brought to life in real time: the idea that wine and food — and the gardens that connect them — are best understood together.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Beringer sensory garden?
Beringer's sensory garden is located behind the historic Rhine House at the Beringer estate in St. Helena, California. It is planted with herbs, flowers, and aromatics specifically chosen to correspond to the flavor profiles found in wine — rosemary, lavender, thyme, and others. Wine educators use the garden as a teaching tool during the Taste of Beringer Tour, helping guests connect the language of tasting notes to smells and textures they can experience directly.
What is the Gather cookbook?
Gather is a richly photographed cookbook featuring thirteen of California's most ambitious winery culinary gardens and the wine-friendly dishes they inspire. It includes more than 60 recipes across a range of styles and ingredients, each designed to complement the wines of the featured wineries. Beringer Vineyards is among the wineries featured, with five recipe pairings from across the portfolio.
What wines are featured in the Beringer section of Gather?
The Beringer pairings in Gather include Private Reserve Chardonnay, Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Alluvium Blanc, Luminus Chardonnay, and Nightingale — spanning the full range of Beringer's portfolio from whites to reds to dessert wine.
What is the Taste of Beringer Tour?
The Taste of Beringer Tour is a guided wine and food pairing experience at Beringer's estate in St. Helena. It includes a walk through the sensory garden and a seated tasting of winery-exclusive and reserve wines paired with seasonal bites from Beringer's culinary team, held in the historic Rhine House. Visit beringer.com/pages/visit for reservations.
Experience the sensory garden in person. The Taste of Beringer Tour at the historic Rhine House is where the garden and the wines come together.
