Maximilian Riedel, CEO of the Riedel Crystal of America, presented a fascinating wine tasting on Thursday night at the Miele Gallery, designed to illustrate the theory that each variety of wine deserves its own glass. The Riedel company makes 250 different glasses, which they contend enormously increases the enjoyment of each specific wine.
Maximilian Riedel put it this way: “Wine simply tastes better in the right glass.”
The Riedel family began making glass in 1756, but not wine glasses. Wine was reserved for royalty and the clergy, Riedel explained. The regular people drank beer. His family began by producing perfume bottles. He is the 11th generation of his family involved in glass-making and it wasn’t until the 9th generation of the family business, with Claus Josef Riedel at the helm, that stemware was designed "based on the character of wine". Their Sommeliers collection was introduced 30 years ago.
The evening with the very charming Maximilian Riedel was spent tasting different wines out of different glasses (always spitting them out), while being guided by the glass expert in what to look for. (The spitting was important, he said, and you can always tell a wine professional by how proficiently he or she spits.)
We tasted wine from four different Riedel glasses from the Vinum tasting collection. They included a Montrachet/Chardonnay glass; a Sauvignon Blanc glass; one for Burgundy or Pinot Noir and one for Bordeaux. Additionally there was a clear short plastic cup provided and a large red plastic cup (for spitting).
First we learned why we had to swirl the wine. We started with the Sauvignon Blanc. Wine is made from molecules and the alcohol sits on the top, while the fruit goes to the bottom. In order to combine the two, you must swirl the wine with the glass doing the work. The faster “the legs” develop, the more alcohol in the wine.
It was time to sniff. Riedel doesn’t recommend having any cosmetic work done to your nose if you want to enjoy wine. You “dive in” to get the perfume.
Then we tipped the wine away from us until it almost spilled out of the glass. We tipped it back. (Riedel has a story about that too! He says don’t worry about spilling white wine, because it doesn’t stain. And you can get red wine out by using white wine. He says to use champagne, because then you’ll have something to celebrate when you get the stain out.)
We looked at the mark left by the wine. Did it come to a point? Was it more rounded? That becomes important when you consider the qualities of specific wines and where you want them to land on the tongue after sipping. Then we tasted, using the red plastic cup to spit out the wine. (It was going to be a long night.)
Riedel explained that with a Sauvignon Blanc, because the wine is so acidic, you want the wine glass to have a small bowl. That will help the wine to reach the tip of the tongue where the sweet taste buds are. This type of glass will enhance the fruit. The wine will land on the receptors of the tongue that taste sweet and THAT will emphasize the sweetness and not the acid of the Sauvignon Blanc.
If you drink Sauvignon Blanc out of the “wrong” glass, it reaches the sides of the tongue, so you taste bitter or sour flavors first. It is fascinating and we did see…and taste…for ourselves how it worked. (This taste bud diagram shows clearly where the different taste buds are.) It was amazing how the right glass for Sauvignon Blanc ensures you taste the wine is on the tip of your tongue first where you taste sweet.
Next we tasted a Chardonnay in a very differently shaped glass. In this glass, when you tip it away from you, the wine flow is rounded. That’s how it enters onto the palate and, thus, avoids the tip of the tongue. The wine has enough natural sugar, so you don’t need to emphasize it. You want the wine to go onto the sides and taste using the bitter and sour taste buds. The right glass will accomplish that.
When we tasted the Chardonnay in the Sauvignon Blanc glass, it became bitter and salty. Riedel said that his palate becomes so confused when drinking Chardonnay out of the wrong glass that he can’t even think of what he wants to eat with the wine. He calls that the Chardonnay diet.
The aftertaste of the wine is also affected by the glass, which in turn affects the food that’s paired with the specific wine.
The Burgundy or Pinot Noir glass is shaped so the flow of wine (remember we see this by tipping the wine in the glass) ends in a sharp point. It arrives at the tip of the tongue to enhance its sweetness. The glass gives a long lasting aftertaste and, according to Riedel, Pinot Noir is the most perfect wine with food - particularly Thanksgiving food, because of its taste of cranberries.
We tried the Pinot Noir in a Chardonnay glass. Riedel pointed out (and we observed this too) that the wine loses much of its complexity. The fruit taste becomes more bitter and the tannins become much stronger and actually dry out the mouth.
The other interesting tasting came from the plastic cup. It was difficult to swirl and the rolled rim interfered with the tasting. When drinking from a plastic cup, the wine smelled flat and went right to the center of the palate, which has no taste buds and is numb.
It was a fascinating display and, at the end, Riedel said a common question he’s always asked is if he had to have only one wine glass, what shape would it be? We sat on the edge of our seats to hear the answer. We should have known. There was no answer to that question, because there isn’t one wine glass that suits all wines, according to the Riedel. Everyone came away, I think, with a newfound appreciation of how to taste wine.
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