Personally I love the smell of wet wool...but then I love the smell of wet sheep too! If you're worried about the smell, but don't want to subject your stuff to the washing machine too much, I recommend soaking it in a no-rinse wool wash, like Eucalan (available in Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, or Lavender) or Soak. I prefer Kookaburra Wool Wash (I swear I picked my internet handle before I found out about this stuff), but it has a lot of lanolin in it, and preserves that lovely sheepy smell. (But the lanolin does help water resistance!)
http://www.eucalan.com/
http://www.soakwash.com/
http://www.kookaburraco.com/wash_buynow.htm
If you're in the US, it won't be a big deal to find some Eucalan in a yarn shop (a REAL yarn shop, not a big box craft store with a yarn section) to sniff the different scents and see if there's one you like. (Eucalyptus is my favorite.) Soak offers sample packs of several different scents.