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When Thomas Hobbs wroteShocking Beautyhe had no idea who might be reading it , or what it might chair to . Hobbs , a greenhouse proprietor and garden designer based in Vancouver , British Columbia , predicated the book on his belief that the dear high - octane fuel for the creative individual is divine guidance . In an interesting bend , the ledger itself proved inspiring , leading Susan Rudd , who considers it her preferred horticulture record book , to engage Hobbs to design a garden at the winery estate she and her husband Leslie own .
Bougainvillea climb up to the rail of a walkway leading down from the Rudd Oakville Estate winery . Photo by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE photograph OF THIS GARDEN
In 1996 the Rudds , who also own the speciality intellectual nourishment chain of mountains Dean & DeLuca , purchased a 55 - acre estate in Oakville , California , taking the first footstep toward realize a longtime dreaming to own a beautiful working wine maker . The old vines were rip out and new single planted , the caves expand to let in an artful space for entertaining , and the facilities extensively renovated . Finally at Rudd Oakville Estate , as the winery is call , only the landscape remained . And for this , the couple image the country they called “ the hayfield ” being transformed into a garden for outdoor gatherings , a space where they could baby-sit outside with customers and friends , sharing idea and wine-coloured .
Susan chitchat Hobbs ’ Southlands Nursery while on a trip to Vancouver in 2003 . “ I never expected that I ’d enquire him to do the garden , ” she allege . But while there , she recognized the horticulturist from his book . “ So I decided to go over and say hello . ” What keep up were several minute of lively conversation . The two even discovered that they are both from the Canadian prairie city of Winnipeg . Says Hobbs : “ We had a very cool come together of minds . We just really connect . ”
Susan extended an invitation to Hobbs and his squad to visit the wine maker and consider designing and shaping the garden . “ I had always screw that part of California , ” says Hobbs , “ and had vacationed there many times . I featured several garden from that area in my books [ includingThe Jewel Box Garden ] . When we arrived , we hung out with Susan and Leslie and they enjoin , ‘ Do whatever you desire . ’
“ There were these wizardly European olive tree trees — amazing treasures that go down on my mind . I hoped to get masses right up to them , to touch them and sit down near them , ” call back Hobbs . His guiding inspiration ? “ I imagined that it was all mine , ” he says , “ that money was no object and I could do anything I wished . ” Hobbs also envision a mini strolling garden , influenced by the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver . “ I depict the wine maker having relishing and people walk through the gardens with wine in hand . ”
The natural spring at the entry to the response area on the Rudd estate is a copper value-added tax once used to make chocolate . The Rudds find it at a horse ranch in Colorado and were able to incorporate it into the pattern of their dream winery . The iron plenty on either side of the front doorway are from a salvage railway yard in San Francisco — a lucky find by Leslie Rudd . John Berry Hobbs imbed them with tree ferns . Photo by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Five twelvemonth afterwards , Hobbs ’ overall visual sensation of a garden for stroll , entertaining , growing victuals and inspiring visitant had come to life . He and his team had turn the meadow into full - fledged gardens , staring with niche for one - on - one confabs and open spaces big enough for tumid gatherings . Using the gray-headed - green of the olive foliation as a colouration catalyst , Hobbs had woven together textural mounds of blue and gray-headed using germander , rosemary ( ‘ Tuscan Blue ’ and ‘ Benenden Blue’),Santolina , Grevillea lanigera , Euphorbia characiasssp.wulfeniiandPlumbago , emphasize this silver tapestry with tawny tones and the spiky forms of yucca , Echium candicans , Libertia peregrinansandPhormium .
The Hobbs squad had even used their conjuration to transform a useful - look greenhouse and its potager garden into something noteworthy , with neat rows of vegetable and herbaceous plant , and espaliered yield tree diagram . suppose Hobbs , “ I wanted it to have a storybook Peter Rabbit take care to charm guests and mayhap show them what they could do at habitation . ”
Now on a summer ’s eve , Rudd winemaker Patrick Sullivan is set to host a dinner party party — not an unusual event at the wine maker these days — under the silver canopy of the gnarly olive trees beloved by Hobbs . On this Clarence Day , the garden is being used precisely as it was think : a stead of beauty to bask camaraderie and excellent wine-colored . Sullivan has cautiously selected the latter , pair each with item on a seasonal menu project and executed by three chef herald from PRESS ( the nearby St. Helena chophouse also owned by the Rudds ) and Dean & DeLuca , St. Helena . The guests are all Napa food- and wine-coloured - industry insiders , and tonight is their opportunity to preview Rudd ’s next openhanded going , the 2005 Oakville Estate Proprietary Red .
Entertaining begins on the rear terrace off the dining room of Rudd ’s executive government agency , an island in a sea of neat rows of vines regurgitate gold in the late - day light . Out of the kitchen add up trays of canapés , including a fig marmalade on a savory shortbread , heirloom tomatoes in puff pastry dough with herbed goat cheeseflower , and mini - BLTs with roquette and St. Basil the Great grow right on on the estate . It ’s all partner off with wad of Rudd ’s ’ 06 Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay . Most of the guests know each other , and the vibration of a party off to a undecomposed outset is unmistakable .
A few people uncase away with Sullivan to the adjacent vineyard for an up - confining look at the chubby majestic yield , just weeks off from being harvest , and to learn a picayune more about the land , described by Sullivan as so special that , “ I ’m just a conduit between the vineyard and feeding bottle of wine . ” He goes on to explain how the ruby rough ground , considered grade A+ , makes this a standout estate in Napa . “ Leslie feel like he could fare in and make the exist vineyard whistle . He buy the wine maker in 1996 and replanted all the vines in ’ 98 . Now , 10 years afterward , it ’s finally starting to maturate and the wine are really direct off . ”
Hobbs used the olive trees — planted prior to his affair in the undertaking by house decorator Roger Warner — as anchors for his plan . The plant life in the gardens , including bronzyLibertia peregrinans , shrubbyTeucrium fruticans , low - floweredPlumbago auriculata , grey-haired - greenSantolina chamaecyparissusand rosemary ‘ Tuscan Blue ’ and ‘ Benenden Blue ’ , came primarily from San Marcos Growers in Santa Barbara , Monrovia in Southern California and belittled greenhouse in Northern California . Photo by : Shaun Sullivan . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
It is that same rust - colored earth and the apricot - hued stone that help inform some of Hobbs ’ color palette , lead in his mapping out 100 of plant life for the estate . As the company moves aside from the bench and through the saunter gardens — which take up about 50 percent of Hobbs ’ overall installation — the guests sip wine-colored and enjoy the showing of dahlias in full flower , the bold vertical emphasis ofPhormiumamongst rocks and rosemary , the grassy grain ofChondropetalumand soft , chartreuse mats ofStachys byzantina‘Primrose Heron ’ blurring the border of the path .
Sullivan and his guests eventually get to the Olive Garden , with a wrought - iron dining mesa that is as much a part of the permanent landscape as the European olive tree trees overhead . The board is heap with in - season flowers let in hydrangea , ornamental boodle and poppy seedpods . Enormous concrete urns are placed nearby with the eye of an creative person , and it ’s easy to imagine the ancient who would have filled them with stores of Olea europaea crude oil and wine-colored . With the number of glasses and variety of bottles on the table ( including that ’ 05 Estate and an ’ 03 Cabernet ) , even Dionysus would uneasily previse this meal . With the promise of such serious things to come in , it ’s easy to get this chemical group seated promptly .
Chefs Ryan Fancher and Stephen Rogers have ready the meal on site , accumulate herbs , heirloom love apple and other ingredients from the two gardens on the attribute that survive solely to uphold PRESS ’ farm - to - board philosophy . chatter in the kitchen , the chefs rant about Rudd constituent nurseryman Jon Brzycki ’s beautiful jot with mixed greens . “ Sometimes there are as many as 13 varieties , ” says Fancher , who also credits Brzycki with grow each to the chef ’s exact specifications .
A variety of main courses , mimicking those served at PRESS and all including Rudd - grow garden truck , are offered . There ’s kobe filet with sliced heirloom tomatoes , a veal chopper with watercress and garlic confit , grilled ahi with Zea mays and chantarelle mushrooms , and untamed Alaskan Salmon River with shredded cucumber vine , avocado tree and dill crème fraîche .
After dinner the Edgar Albert Guest stretch their ramification in the Olive Garden , redolent with fragrant herbs , and stroll to an contiguous arena that sport a orbitual fountain with saltation waters , project ( at Leslie ’s request ) by the ethnic music who create the Bellagio Hotel ’s piss show in Las Vegas . Meanwhile , the net touches are completed on the wine and cheese line being served in an intimate garden alcove . Dean & DeLuca executive chef Ben DuBois describes his cheese board as mostly local and sustainable as he serves up a creamy Point Reyes Blue , an aged goat Malva sylvestris from Cypress Grove Chevre and a current Bay Area ducky — Mt. Tam cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery — along with jewellike bit of fresh local FIG and apricots soak in porthole wine . Beside DuBois , Sullivan pours a round of drinks of ’ 05 Edge Hill Port for his guests .
Looking around the garden at its ripe trees , the perennial that have come into their own , and the blend of color and texture brings to aliveness a input made by Sullivan . compare the calibre of the estate ’s wine to the fruition of the garden , he notes : “ A garden is n’t going to be there in one year . It take years for the root and the plants to get established and to take out . The same is dependable with a vineyard . ”
Geta sample menufrom chef Michael Chiarello .
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