Dominio IV Wines

Our intent is to create an estate winery known largely for its red varietals. Foremost among our reds is the Spanish grape Tempranillo. A natural bridge between the Pinot Noir and the Cabernet Sauvignon, this grape is legendary in Europe and vastly under-planted in the New World. We are positioning ourselves to be among the first estate wineries showcasing Tempranillo.

We’ll stack the cards by using the benefits of Oregon’s varied climates to make Tempranillo, Syrah and Pinot Noir from vineyard sites aptly suited to these grapes. Our strategy hinges on the concept of “overlapping climates”. That is to say, we will harvest the same variety of grapes in two climates, one slightly warmer than the other. This ensures more complex and consistent wines, and the ability to single out a vineyard that particularly prospered under the specific conditions of each vintage.

The 2004 vintage will be Dominio IV’s first harvest from its own vineyard. This is incredibly exciting as we have labored for three long years doing all the work ourselves. We are extremely proud of how our vineyard is developing. This vineyard is farmed in an over-the-top organic method called Biodynamic farming. This method of farming improves the soils without the polluting run-off from fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. We are harvesting both Syrah and Tempranillo from our Three Sleeps Vineyard.

This is the second year we will make wine from Oregon’s legendary Pinot Noir grape.  A portion of the grapes will come from the Montazi Vineyard just southwest of McMinnville Oregon. These grapes are also farmed Biodynamically. Pinot is the last installment in Dominio IV’s foursome of wines; Tempranillo, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Viongier.

About Dominio IV and our logo, the Labyrinth. Dominio is Latin for a feast or banquet, and power or strength. It is also Spanish for territory or dominion. The IV refers to four people, four wines, four seasons, four vineyards and four quadrants of the labyrinth. Putting these meanings together we furnish ourselves with a very nice reason to party four times a year from the fruits of our labor.

The symbol of the labyrinth represents a philosophy that we wish to embody. Our wines are meant to articulate the touch of human hands and are produced from a scale that benefits from a contemplated human interaction. This is also true for the labyrinth, as it is scaled for humans to walk, reflect upon, and enjoy. The labyrinth’s sinuous path evokes the same sort of mysteries that wine evokes. Each becomes more complex with every forward step resulting in an experience that is difficult to explain, yet rich and rewarding. The four quadrants of the labyrinth represent the four seasons of the year, all of which play an integral role in both the development of the grapes and of the wines.

Our intention is to afford the wine lover a deeper participation in the wines and the vines. We propose to plant a vine labyrinth (168ft in diameter) that invites this participation. The welcoming path of vines will give walkers a first hand look at what will become a hallowed part of a future celebration or meal. The interior of the labyrinth gives one the feeling of refuge, much like the feeling in a house of friends sharing the warmth of each others company. We hope to promote this feeling with our wines.

Although the oldest existing labyrinth dates back to 2500-2000 B.C.E. (found in Sardinia), they manifest in almost every religious tradition of the world. The design that we plan to transform into a vineyard dates back to 860 A.D. as a prototype. It was installed in Chartres Cathedral, France between 1194 and 1220 A.D. We hope to construct a half-acre labyrinth in our Three Sleeps vineyard, in Mosier, in the near future. We will keep you posted on the progress of this project.

 

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