WINE 101 > WINE GLASSES
Choosing Wine Glasses
Why should it be so difficult to grasp the importance of your stemware in enjoying wine to the fullest? Ask a house painter what the most important tool of his trade is, he'll tell you quality brushes. Ask a fly fisherman what decision most effects the success of an outing, he'll tell you its choosing the right fly for the conditions. Any aficionado finds the best tools to enhance the enjoyment of their avocation. So should the wine lover start this serious pursuit with the proper tools, quality stemware.
Riedel Wine Glasses
Claus Riedel was the first person in the long history of the glass to design its shape according to the character of the wine. He is thus the inventor of the functional wine glass. Designing new stems or fine tuning existing ones for the evolving taste in wine and the expanding availability to new sources of wine has become a more rigorous process under Georg Riedel, today's head of the firm. Experts around the world specializing in the type of wine for which the glass is being designed receive half a dozen intuitive designs for the grape plus identical sets of wines with which to judge the glasses. The responses lead to successive iterations of the design until near consensus is reached.
"The finest glasses for both technical and hedonistic purposes are those made by Riedel. The effect of these glasses on fine wine is profound. I cannot emphasize enough what a difference they make.”
(Robert M.Parker, Jr. The Wine Advocate)
What is the right wine glass in which to serve Pinot Noir?
We suggest a differnet glass for French Burgundy as opposed to New World Pinot Noir. The Vinum shapes were designed with old world wines in mind. The style of Oregon Pinot Noir is vastly different from Pommard or Nuits-Saint-Georges. The Vinum glass was thebest stem there was for either until Georg Riedel advanced a new design specifically for new world wines, the Extreme.
What is the right glass in which to serve Chardonnay or Cabernat Sauvignon?
Not to worry, whatever wine you choose from our site is accompanied with suggestions for stemware.
The Best Wine Glass in the World.
The Riedel Sommeliers series is the wineglass benchmark and the most successful series of hand-made glasses in the world. Each glass is individually made: the upper parts blown into a mould, the stem and base hand-crafted with methods in use for millennia. Riedel's glass-makers invest their talent, know-how and meticulous craftsmanship in making glasses of impeccable quality. Sommeliers are executed in over 24% lead crystal. This is the height of form and function.
Introduced in 1986, Vinum was the first machine-made series of glasses in history to be based exclusively on the characteristics of quality. Vinum has had a permanent impact on the globe’s wine glass culture. These glasses have proved to consumers and restaurateurs that the pleasure of consuming wine starts with the glass. The Vinum collection, developed by Georg Riedel on the principle that the content commands the shape, is the “Vitrum-Vinothek” for every day use. Vinum is made of over 24% lead crystal.
The Extreme series is best suited to new world wines. The Vinum old world.
Introduced in 1989, “Ouverture” is Riedel’s uncomplicated starter series for consumers, who appreciate good, reasonably priced wine. Ideal for everyday use, Ouverture glasses offer perfectly shaped wine glasses at competitive prices. Six shapes are made for “drinking pleasure”. Ouverture is lead free.