The Shape of Wine with RIEDEL
Your wine’s best friend is its glass.
Before food pairing or decanting even come into the picture, imagine how the glass embraces your wine, directing its aromas to your nose and flavours onto your palate. It stands to reason that the shape and size of the glass should have some effect on how one experiences the wine. Now I would contend that the effect is not always drastic, however it is real and noticeable.
That was the underlining impression from RIEDEL’s intimate wine tasting event as part of VanWineFest 2024. The exuberant Alysha Harker-West, Canadian RIEDEL Manager, led a master class in tasting 4 exquisite wines in 4 different glasses designed for specific varieties. Experimentation and discovery were the main themes of the evening as we poured our samples and tuned in to our senses.
Kayla, Founder, uncorkBC with Alysha Harker-West, Canadian Riedel Manager at a RIEDEL wine tasting at OAK Estate Winery.
The Sauvignon Blanc from Church and State was smooth, fresh, aromatic, and playful in the Sauvignon Blanc glass. When tasted from the Chardonnay glass however, the wine became muted and flat. Da Silva Vineyards’ Chardonnay produced the same effect in reverse, replacing its soft, lemon loaf delicacy for a sharp, overly acidic, alcohol-dominant presentation in the Sauvignon Blanc Glass. Moraine’s Reserve Pinot Noir expressed itself as bright, sophisticated, and harmonious in its varietal-specific glass. When tasted from the Cab-Merlot glass, the alcohol took the stage while the desirable qualities were quieted. Finally with the only non-BC wine of the evening, the Napa Cabernet from Louis M. Martini impressed in the RIEDEL Cab-Merlot glass, where fruit and leather and spice were accentuated. Conversely, the wine’s aromas were muted and it was too sharp on the palate when tasted from the Sauvignon Blanc glass.
To take the concept to another level, after tasting the wines alone and comparing between glasses, Alysha had us taste some chocolates and repeat the experiment. The effects here were even more pronounced, with the pairings ranging from romantic slow-dances to something akin to bare-knuckle boxing. Remember these wines are tasted side-by-side, poured at the same time and temperature, leaving the glass as the sole variable.
The new line of RIEDEL Wine Wings glasses was showcased at this event, and their unique shape has gained plenty of attention in the wine world. The designs simply take advantage of physics, playing with subtle variations in rim diameter and bowl contour in order to manipulate the rate of oxidation. There are numerous different models but if you’re not sure which would best suit a particular wine, their website has a convenient Wine Glass Guide which will recommend the right products from their collections. Even if you don’t own any RIEDEL glasses, and don’t have a spirited, superstar host like Alysha, you can still perform these experiments for yourself using whatever’s in your cupboard. And I encourage you to do so!
If you agree that a fundamental component of one’s relationship with wine is the experience of enjoying it in the moment - the sight, smell, taste, feel, even the sound of the pour or the swirl - then you cannot discount how the experience of the wine, and therefore one’s relationship with wine, are augmented by quality stemware that is specifically designed for this purpose.
Piece written by: Matt Tinney, contributor, uncorkBC