The perfect wine glass: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2005/09/18 > The perfect wine glass

The perfect wine glass
Sunday, September 18, 2005 - By Tomas Clancy
It is a part of the wine business that is worth hundreds of millions of euro annually, requires no sun, no expensive vineyards and no perilous contest with the vagaries of the weather at harvest time. What is it?

Glass manufacture, and in particular, wine glass, or what the north American market has now termed ‘stemware'.

Ireland had led the luxury end of the wine glass market for the last 200 years, during which time the words Waterford Crystal became synonymous with bespoke luxury, a set of the Lismore pattern wine goblets or tumblers became prized wedding gifts and more than half the sideboards in Ireland groaned under the weight of Waterford-manufactured heirlooms.

Alas, when Waterford Crystal owner Sir Anthony O'Reilly pours the big Barolo, the top flight Burgundy or the First Classed Growth Bordeaux into his Waterford Crystal glass, he is among a rapidly diminishing and anachronistic market segment.

Waterford Crystal has to a large extent been manoeuvred out of the wine lovers' armoury by two large European crystal manufacturers, Riedel and Schott.

To offset this decline, Waterford employed fashion designers John Rocha and Jasper Conran to mould and diversify the product.

The people at Waterford Crystal are dedicated to their craft. But while they dominate the entire luxury glassware market, from bowls to chandeliers, they just simply do not see the problem in their wine glass strategy.

John Rocha's designs have been quite sumptuous across the range, but his wine glasses are a weak point.

They are much too thick at the lip and although they do not ruin the impact of good wine, they at least fail to complement it.

The Conran ‘wine glasses' are frankly bewildering. The descendants of ludicrous 1950s prawn cocktail cones, they are more suited to ice cream than to wine.

Fortunately for Irish crystal, Waterford is neither the beginning nor the end of crystal manufacture in Ireland (or in the case of so much Waterford Crystal these days, in Poland or the Czech Republic). Galway, Navan and Tipperary Crystal all make crystal glass with loyal devotees.

Tipperary Crystal, for one, has taken note of the European interlopers into the glassware market and has produced a brilliant, world beating modern, crystal wine glass.

The catalyst for this advance is its new glass designer, a man who lives and breathes food and wine excellence at his restaurant in Dublin's Merrion Hotel - Patrick Guilbaud.

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud was the recent setting for one of my all too infrequent epiphanies. None of them involve lotto numbers, unfortunately, but concern things such as perfect wine selection and solutions to Dublin traffic problems. This one involved crystal.

Around a month ago I was watching a French-speaking waiter pour the Chilean Ambassador's wine into an Austrian crystal glass. I realised that, although we were in Ireland, the scene could be repeated in Brussels, Paris or Rome.

Ireland needed to cut in on this luxurious dance, and thankfully Tipperary Crystal has done so.

SCIENCE OF WINE GLASSES

It is believed different parts of the tongue contain receptors for different taste and texture sensations. The front of the tongue picks up sweet elements and is most sensitive to salt. Sour elements are picked up on extremes of the left and right hand side, while bitter tastes are received at the back.

This remains a staple of much wine literature, but in medical circles the allocation of sense in individual taste buds is thought to be a little too simplistic. However, it is clear that how, where, in what condition and the speed at which taste occurs all impact on sensation.

For example, how many of us think a cup of tea tastes horrible out of that mug or this cup, but our favourite mug makes a lovely brew? So it is with wine. If the glass is too thick the wine cascades to the middle or back of the tongue.

Wine tasters compensate for this by swilling and then sucking the wine across their palate. But this is not accepted conduct in a restaurant or even if drinking at home. Wine can be enjoyed from a thick rimmed glass, but you most certainly will not get the best out of its taste perception. And if you add in preposterous weight and an obscuring pattern, you eliminate good colour observation and easy handling too.

The ideal wine glass should be very thin on the rim, slightly inverted at the mouth so as to trap the bouquet, well balanced and light to allow easy, pleasurable observation. Riedel, Schott and Spiegelau (under parent company Riedel) are three of the best wine glass producers.

Riedel has gone further, accentuating the glass to complement each particular wine or varietal.

By changing the angle of the side and base, or the height and width, to intensify bouquets, Georg Riedel reckons he can deliver the wine to the perfect spot on the palate.

Restaurateur Guilbaud has followed this by creating a Bordeaux red glass, a white Burgundy, a red Burgundy and a set of Champagne flutes.

The comprehensive glass selection caters for cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and chardonnay, and retails at €69.95 for a box set of four.

The Bordeaux glass in particular is a triumph. It has a gorgeous angular bowl, with a distinct angular inward fall to the glass that dramatically lifts and holds any bouquets raised.

It is quite large, too, giving plenty of room to swirl. In this action, the balance and slender elegance of the stem and bowl become evident. The bowl is pure with no superfluous decoration and above all, the lip is wafer thin.

“I wanted a wine glass that would be elegant and a pleasure to use, that was almost invisible. A glass that was about the wine, not about the glass.You should not be able to even feel the glass. It should fade into the background,” says Guilbaud.

Just as the best service in a restaurant should be a poised, unobtrusive hand, the wine glass should play the same part. However, Guilbaud is also adamant that this does not mean the service or the glass should be bland or unengaged. “It is a tool and you want the right tool for the job,” he says. “I have tried to make them functional and hopefully discreet too.”

It is a testament to Guilbaud's passion that the glasses exude brilliant, precise execution rather than the grandstanding of some designer products. Just as is the case with Riedel and Schott, you have to look closely at the base to see a tiny Patrick Guilbaud logo.

Tipperary Crystal has been able to think its way out of the rut many other fine crystal manufacturers are in.

Now wine lovers must play their supportive part in this new Irish wine revolution.

E-mail the wine column at tc@iol.ie