DIY Network

Copia's Edible Gardens Where good wine meets the freshest organic foods From "Dirt On Gardening" episode DDOG-106

	Colby Eierman, director of gardens at Copia.
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DIY's The Dirt on Gardening visits Napa Valley's Copia Gardens and meets the gardens' director Colby Eierman.

Named after the goddess of abundance, Copia Gardens was established celebrate food and wine. It's purpose is to explore, explain and educate about the sophisticated relationships that exist between good food and drink.

The center is also host to series of concerts, lectures, films and other events related to the arts.

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Napa Valley is all about wine, but at Copia the wine vineyards exist in a purposeful harmony with some unique gardens. Copia's "organic edible gardens" feature flowers, herbs and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables--most of which are categorized and planted according to the families of wines they complement or describe.

Specific foods that are known to complement the flavors of particular wines are termed "affinities." So at Copia, herbs and vegetables that pair well in prepared dishes with wines such as cabernets or merlots, for example, are grown in a dedicated red wine tract within the garden.

Growing alongside the affinity selections are plants associated with particular wines as "descriptors." Again, the plants are placed according to the wines with which the are associated. Tobacco and pepper, for example, are used as descriptors when talking about the flavor of certain wines.

In general, lighter, citrus or sweeter types of fruits and vegetables--pears and limes, for example--are associated with lighter white wines, while heartier and darker things--like tomatoes or raspberries--correspond to the reds.

Eggplant is one vegetable commonly regarded as complementary to red wines.

Raspberries are commonly used as a red wine descriptor.

	Copia Gardens is dedicated to exploring and celebrating the perfect marriage of food and wine.

An underlying mission at Copia is the growing and use of only the freshest grown fruits and vegetables. These fresh, naturally grown and vine-ripened products are then used to produce foods with genuine and complex flavors that complement one another, and specifically selected wines, fully. "Eating a fresh peach off the tree, picked five seconds ago," says Colby, "simply doesn't compare to going to the market and buying something that was picked under-ripe, shipped, brought to market and allowed to ripen off the tree. There's no comparison."

Continue the online tour in DIY's "Very Special Gardens" series.