When evaluating a wine’s profile, most of us use words to describe the experience. Think “fruit” flavors, be it berries or lemon, or “floral” notes, such as rose petals, or “vanilla,” an aroma sensation from the barrels used. But what if you were challenged to describe wine as a shape? Winemaker Patrick Reuter of Dominio IV accomplishes just that in the winery’s Imagination Series wines.

Founded in 2002 by Reuter and his wife, viticulturist Leigh Bartholomew, Dominio IV is rooted in both tradition and artistry. The Imagination Series, which consists of 30 different wines, introduced “shape-tasting” as a method of visually presenting the character of a wine by assigning shapes to individual characteristics of the wine — fruit, acid, tannin/texture, umami, etc. — and mapping them across the palate over time. The wines’ labels reveal the resulting images.

Reuter invented the shape-tasting experience in college, while drinking a bottle of 1982 Bordeaux. At just 19 years old… Read the whole story here on Oregon Wine Press.