The Glass Is Half-Full
for Georg Riedel
The Austrian glassware magnate on how many
different varieties you really need and how he converted Robert Mondavi
By Will Lyons in the
Wall Street Journal
GEORG RIEDEL MAY BE the greatest wine-glass salesman on the
planet. For the past 41 years, he has been on the road, crossing time zones,
visiting restaurants and drinking in wine bars, enthusiastically spreading the
word about his enormous range of glassware. It’s no secret that Riedel’s
Sommeliers wine glasses, first introduced by his father in 1973, have become
the benchmark against which all others are measured.
Today, he’s at
London’s Connaught hotel, showcasing his latest range, Veritas (taller, lighter
and finer), and doing what he does best: putting the word out and dispensing
with the naysayers.
“The Connaught is
special for me,” he says. “It was where I was first introduced to the American
winemaker Robert Mondavi. It didn’t go well.” Mr. Riedel recalls that as he
explained the science behind his glasses to Mondavi—how the shape of a glass
can alter the perception of a wine, how his glasses direct the wine directly
onto the tongue and how the bowl captures the wine’s aromas—the winemaker
became more and more irritated.
Perhaps it was the
claim that you need a different wine glass for each grape variety that finally
sent an exasperated Mondavi over the edge. According to Mr. Riedel, the
Californian said that in all his 50 years of winemaking, he had never heard
such nonsense. Later that evening, though, at the joint dinner they were
hosting, Mondavi became his greatest convert. After tasting a wine out of a
Riedel Sauvignon Blanc glass, he interrupted Mr. Riedel’s speech, exclaiming:
“This is amazing!”
Mondavi was right. If
you are in any doubt about the importance of the shape and type of glass on a
wine, try drinking the same wine from a variety of shapes. You’ll taste the
difference almost immediately.
But Riedel sells more
than 100 kinds of glasses, the most expensive at around £100 a glass. He also
has a range for different grape varieties so there’s a specific glass for
Riesling, Chardonnay and Chianti. Are they all necessary? “Life is a
compromise,” Mr. Riedel says, before admitting that no one can use his grape range
every day.
As a rule of thumb,
when choosing a glass, go for a tulip-shaped bowl—the wider the better. Heavy
and colored glasses should be avoided as they dull the appreciation of tasting.
If you are drinking rare and fine wines, it’s worth investing in a set of good
red and white glasses. Riedel, Zalto, Spiegelau, Schott Zwiesel and John
Jenkins all offer good ranges.
I like the Veritas
range; it keeps the aesthetics of Riedel while adding the lightness of brands
like Zalto. Where I think Riedel has really excelled is with its new Champagne
glass. With a wider bowl, the Veritas takes sparkling wine seriously,
highlighting the quality of the base wine.
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