I have a few Riedel glasses at home that I use for red Bordeaux blends, Pinot Noir, oaked Chardonnay, and aromatic white wines, but have not tested the theory that the shape of a glass can really positively or negatively affect the taste of the wine, until I attended this seminar at the Vancouver International Wine Festival, hosted by Alysha Harker, Canadian Director for Riedel. She showed us how glass shape changes our wine experience as we sampled Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon in Riedel Veloce glassware. This seminar was sponsored by Riedel and the Terminal City Club.
Along with Alysha, we had panellists Jim Faulkner, Christa-Lee McWatters, Nicholas Paris MW, and Ray Signorello whose wines were sampled in these fantastic glasses.
The Featured Wines:
- McWatters Collection Okanagan Valley Chardonnay 2021, BC
- Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc 2021, New Zealand
- Ex Nihilo Vineyards Okanagan Valley Pinot Noir 2021, BC
- S by Signorello Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, California
Riedel Veloce is their newest line of glassware. Very elegant and beautiful with long, thin stems. The special thing about these new glasses is that they are the thinnest machine-made glasses made by Riedel. Riedel has a long history going back to 1765 in Austria. The family was persecuted by the Germans but were able to reclaim their factory in Küfstein, Austria. The factory was decimated at that time, but luckily the Swarovski family came and helped rebuild the factory. The Riedel family did not originally make wine glasses, but that changed when Claus Josef Riedel visited the Romani Conti winery in Burgundy. Claus Josef was impressed with the wine and brought a bottle back to the factory. He noted that the wine tasted different, depending on the vessel he drank the wine out of. He decided to design a glass that showcases the wine in every way possible to be able to make it exactly how the producer made it. He brought the glass back to the Romani Conti winery as a gift and the winemaker could not believe the transformation of the wine, and that is how the factory shifted to making wine glasses. The Queen of England was their very first customer; she ordered 99 stems.
When you look at a glass, the bowl, the length, and the rim diameter affect the wine in different ways. Alysha noted that these factors will determine where the wine should hit your palate to enhance the wine’s character. She noted the sides of your tongue detect sour and bitter, in the middle is a whole lot of nothing,
and right before you swallow again is bitter. She also noted that for all Riedel glasses, the foot will be the same size as the widest part of the bowl to keep the glass from tipping over. The stem is meant to accentuate the bowl, e.g. a longer stem makes the bowl look more elegant.
Before tasting each wine, the winery principal for each winery spoke about the wine and what to expect from the wine. Nicholas Paris MW was the first to speak from New Zealand’s Whitehaven Winery. Nicholas mentioned that this Sauvignon Blanc is a blend from a few areas in Marlborough. He said that this Sauvignon Blanc should show pink and white grapefruit, passion fruit, tropical fruit, and have gorgeous acidity. We tried this wine in the proper glass, the Sauvignon Blanc glass, and then in an incorrect glass, oaked Chardonnay, in this case. We also did this for the other three wines. My tasting notes below are for the correct glass, along with comments about using an incorrect glass.
My Wine Tasting Notes
Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc 2021, New Zealand – Gooseberries and green bean aromas. Medium body and medium plus acidity with flavours of green fruits, gooseberries and green beans. When I tried this wine with the oaked Chardonnay glass the wine had less acidity, was smoother, and had less bright flavours, and dull aromas. The Chardonnay glass has a wider rim opening and bowl, giving the wine a larger surface area.
McWatters Collection Okanagan Valley Chardonnay 2021, BC – This wine is 100% barrel fermented and all go through malolactic fermentation. This wine has vanilla, tropical fruit and butterscotch aromas. Medium body, soft and round with butterscotch, tropical fruit and light oak flavours. Medium acidity. Trying this wine in the Sauvignon Blanc glass with the smaller bowl and rim, the wine had little aroma and tastes overwhelmingly oaky and your tongue became very dry.
Ex Nihilo Vineyards Okanagan Valley Pinot Noir 2021, BC – This winery is in Lake Country, north Okanagan and it actually does get warm in the summer. The bud break is about three weeks later, but with the longer growing season, the grapes still ripen at the end. Further south, with the hotter climate the vines can shut down sugar production, while in Lake Country the temperature is not too hot to cause long periods of vine shutdown. This wine has beautiful floral, red fruit, red cherries, and dill nose. Medium-body, roundish with a light mouthfeel. Red fruit, strawberry and raspberry flavours. The alternate glass we tried with this wine was the Cabernet Sauvignon glass which was taller and the bowl was not as wide. In this glass the aromas were a bit dull and closed. The flavours were not quite ripe, greener. The wider bowl of the Pinot Noir glass slowed down the wine as it enters your mouth and the wine touches the middle part of your tongue, but the Cabernet Sauvignon glass has no obstruction to slow it down and the wine goes to the back of your mouth where the bitter-sensing taste buds are located.
S by Signorello Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, California – 2019 was the first vintage of this wine. It was a new project for the Signorello family who lost their winery to the wildfires in Napa Valley. The grapes come from three vineyards from three different areas. Mostly Cabernet, but has some Merlot and Petit Verdot added. The wine has a rich ripe black fruit nose, along with blackberries. It has a medium-minus body and light mouthfeel. Soft tannins and acidity. Ripe berries and blackberries on the palate with some pepperiness on the finish. Medium length. The wine was then poured into the Sauvignon Blanc glass. The aromas were more citrus. Don’t drink a full-bodied red wine with an aromatic white wine glass.
Alysha at the end gave us some options for drinking Champagne with these glasses. She said that Champagne Blanc de Blanc should be sipped from the oaked Chardonnay glass and the Blanc de Noir should be sipped from the Pinot Noir glass.
Thank you to Riedel and Terminal City Club for sponsoring this seminar and thank you to the Vancouver International Wine Festival for providing me a seat to attend.
