Since I am very new to the blogging scene, I decided to explore other wine bloggers, looking for intelligent arguments, interesting points of view and of course, wine recommendations. I had no idea how many wine blogs exist! There is a Conference for wine bloggers - cool. Wait, there are Awards?! One of my favorite wineries, Jordan, has won quite a few awards in multiple categories on wineblogawards.org. I found another award winner:
http://winecurmudgeon.com. Out of curiosity of what makes an award winning blog, I clicked on the link. I was moderately entertained with some of the subjects until I read one on glasses. The blogger criticized Riedel's newest creation: a custom-shaped glass for Coca-Cola. The comments weren't even focused on the glass, but more on his dislike for the beverage. Yeah, he is a total Curmudgeon.
I guess his comments bothered me because I have a special connection to Coca-Cola and Riedel. I was one of a select few who attended a tasting event at the Atlanta headquarters of Coca-Cola with Maximilian Riedel in the Spring of 2013. We were told that Riedel and Coca-Cola had joined together to design the perfect drinking glass for the flagship Coca-Cola beverage. According to Maximilian, the Riedel family has long desired to work with the global soft drink company to create a signature glass that would capture the true flavors and essence of the beverage. He was truly excited that the time had finally come for this to be a reality. A panel of executives and marketers from The Coca-Cola Company evaluated 18 Riedel prototypes. They unanimously selected the glass that best showcased the complexities of flavors in the beverage profile of Coca-Cola.
The curve of the glass encompasses the trademark shape of the Coca-Cola bottle, delivering the bubbly beverage at the perfect angle to release the effervescence, the flavors, the "Ahh" - all that makes a Coke a Coke.
This lead to what was the best wine tasting I have ever attended. Maximilian was an engaging guide to the science of glass design for optimal taste. Riedel is world-renown for designing varietal-specific wine glasses that are designed to enhance the aromas and flavors of every fine wine.
Of course I've heard that glass shape impacts the flavors of a wine, but honestly had never tested the theories. That night changed everything, and made me a true believer.
Each table had place settings for about four people. There were three glasses on a white sheet of paper, printed with circles and descriptions, three containers of wine and two chocolates! I immediately recognized the Pinot Noir glass, with its wider bowl and curved, tulip shaped lip. The Cabernet glass was distinctive as well, but the third glass was different. At first I thought it was a white wine glass, but the description said "Syrah". I was not aware there was a specific glass for Syrah - I had always drunk that varietal from a Cabernet glass. The glass, although it resembled a white wine glass, had a distinct egg-like shape, more than the Cabernet or Pinot Noir glasses and the mouth opening was smaller. I wondered how different could a Syrah really taste in that glass versus the larger Cabernet glass. Guess I was about to find out.
We began the tasting with Maximilian explaining about the three glasses and the three wines we would be tasting - a Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, a La Diligence Stagecoach Vineyard Napa Valley Syrah, and a Miner Oakville-Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We were instructed to pour equal amounts of the first wine, the Pinot Noir, into all 3 glasses. The first glass we selected was the Pinot Noir glass. We swirled the Pinot in the glass, then stuck our noses in the small opening and inhaled. The floral, rose-petals and strawberry essence was exactly as I expected. Then we repeated with the Syrah glass. Gone were the floral and fruity notes - instead there was a green, vegetal aroma, with more heat and spice, alcohol, it appears to be heavier, dry, and green - just by smelling, not tasting, we have this impression of the wine. Maximilian then asked us to pick up the Cabernet glass and stated that most of us probably use this glass to drink our Pinot Noir. He suggests that maybe we are wondering why Pinot Noir is not our favorite wine because we are drinking it from the wrong glass. Swirling and sniffing again, there was no floral or fruit - it was diluted, losing the beautiful floral component. "The fresh fruit is gone" Maximilian notes; "It is not joyful. Its not peaceful. Its not happy." The wine is not powerful enough to bring those aromas to the top, it is too exposed in the big glass.
We then went back to the Pinot Noir glass. We swirled, and then smelled again. There was the fruit and the floral scents that were not present in the other two glasses. The first sip is meant to prepare the pallet; the second sip gives more character of the wine. As soon as the wine touches the tongue, there is a sweetness. The first impression is "I like it - I want more of it." On the second sip, Maximilian asked us to close our eyes and focus on the wine flow, which is why we were all there - to understand the shape of the glass. Focus on where is the first impact of the wine on your pallet. Due to the shape of the glass, we are guiding the wine-flow perfectly and precise. Due to the shape of the glass, the first impact, first impression is on the tip of the tongue. He said we were French Kissing the glass... The lip of the glass is what they call the Acidity Bumper. Because at the tip of the tongue you sense fruit and sweetness, the shape of the lip sends the wine to the tip of your tongue. That sends a message to your brain that says this is a sweet taste, not sour or bitter. It prepares the brain to accept the sweetness, so despite the acidity of a Pinot Noir, you taste the fruitiness, the sweeter component of the wine, and not so much of the acidity. Then on the mid palate, after the message of the wine has reached the brain, we could concentrate on the silkiness of the wine, the elegance - the ballet dance on the tongue.
To prove his point, we proceeded to taste the Pinot Noir from the Syrah and Cabernet glasses. Gone were the sweet, floral notes on the tongue. The wine from the Syrah glass was unripe, sour and acidic. The wine passes by the tip of the tongue and hits the center of the palate, where most people have very little taste buds, unless they are Super Tasters. The overall taste and aftertaste from the Syrah glass is green, bitter, minerality, drying out the mouth.
From the Cabernet glass the wine lost all of the richness, the fruit structure and body. Again, there was a green, sour taste. Maximilian says this is exactly why many people who try Pinot Noir are not immediate fans of the wine - they are using the wrong messenger to deliver the wine to our palate.
The rest of the tasting was as mind blowing as the first glass. If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would have shrugged my shoulders at the question of the importance of glass shape when tasting wines.
Now I think maybe I don't like Syrah so much because I am drinking out of the wrong glass. I can say that now, when it comes to drinking a Pinot Noir, I pour it into a tulip-shaped Pinot glass. I feel a little snobby, but the enjoyment I get from that glass justifies the snobbery. There is theory, and then there is the truth. You should really test it out yourself.
