Wine search engine uses animation to visualize aromas

Billed as a ‘virtual taste search engine’, Aromicon lists thousands of wines categorised by every imaginable detail. Wines can be browsed by region, grape variety or food pairing, as well as searched by keyword. There’s also the option to browse according to taste, featuring a huge range of subtleties to satisfy the requirements of the most practiced palette—everything from ‘kiwi’ and ‘butter’, to peculiarities like ‘animal’ and ‘blood’ (luckily you can opt to exclude those). Although the site is in German, it’s almost navigable by its icons alone—hence the name. And in a visually innovative twist, a short animation graphically displays a wine’s unique blend of flavours, showing berries, chocolate, pipes, etc swirling around in a glass. The concept is a spin-off from the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, and features a vintage revenue model: the site essentially functions as a fully-featured affiliate sales portal linking to several German wine merchants. One to serve up for wine-lovers who don’t speak German, or to partner with if you’re in the wine business? Spotted by: Franziska Luh