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“You make the music. We play it.”
And so began Georg Riedel's introduction to a panel of local wine experts at Augusta's Mount Pleasant Estates in early December. Riedel is the tenth-generation leader of the world-renowned Riedel Glassware Company. Over the past century, the company has convinced both wine professionals and everyday drinkers that the shapes of their glasses affect the aroma and taste of wine.
Reidel had traveled from Austria to Missouri to lead a tasting workshop with a group of the state's wine professionals. Together, they hoped to select a varietal-specific glass shape for Vignoles, one of Missouri’s white wine grapes. Determining regional-specific glassware is a rare practice for the company, as it mostly focuses on the world's more prevalent grape varieties. (The company has crafted only one other glass for a Missouri wine: Norton, the state's official wine, in 2009.) In fact, the event marked the first time that the company would establish a shape for a non-vinifera grape, a variety that often goes unrecognized on the global wine scene.
Along with Riedel, the group tasted the wines in 14 shapes and sizes of glassware (see below), ultimately using a process of elimination and an election to determine which of the options best complemented the varietal’s inherent properties.
Before wines ever hit the glasses, though, Riedel (right) discussed the goal of the tasting. “We cannot improve the wine," he said, "but we can bring out and properly express the wine’s elements in the most balanced way."
Balance was to be the theme of the day: Evaluating all of the elements equally was the best way to choose the most harmonious glass, Riedel explained. He eloquently outlined the concepts of wine-tasting and how a glass influences perception.
First, Riedel explained the three key senses used in wine-tasting:
1) Smell. Though beverages are thought to smell the same no matter what vessel they are in, he pointed out that an aroma is comprised of an accumulation of molecules. The ability for that liquid to disperse is what allows us to “sense the size” of the molecules, which ultimately leads to the way we interpret the fragrance.
2) Touch. This is the most overlooked sense, Riedel explained. The tactile sensation that we perceive from food and beverages strongly influences our experiences. Structure, texture, and mouthfeel play instrumental roles in taste profiles.
3) Taste. Riedel refers to taste as "our most unreliable sense." People do not enjoy the same flavors equally, nor do they rate them equally, he explained. Every person has a different number of taste buds, or “sensors,” with the average being 200 to 400 per square inch of the tongue; there's an elite group of “super tasters,” however, that have between 400 and 1,000. While we all would like to believe that we're in the “super taster” category, it would be impossible to rely on taste alone to draw proper conclusions.
Once the group understood the science of wine-tasting, Riedel explained the three components of a glass that affect perception of a wine:
1) Size. The size of the bowl of the glass is mostly about surface area and how much room the wine has to move around, which relates back to those aforementioned molecules.
2) Shape. The shape is all about the angles: how round, how straight, the curvature, the narrowing from the bowl to the mouth of the glass.
3) Rim. While it may seem like a miniscule feature, the contour of a glass' rim determines where on your tongue the wine will hit. Think of it like a lemon: When you taste a lemon by itself, you probably just use the tip of your tongue; because we expect the rush of tart and sour notes, we don’t generally bring the fruit to the middle or back of our palate. The same is true for wine. The elements of sweetness, acidity, minerality and fruit are distinguished differently in various areas within the mouth.
As the tasters prepared to take their glassware stations, Riedel reminded the group: “We are looking for freshness. We want a glass that accentuates minerality, not sweetness. Look for a balance of fruit and acidity. And while you are looking for the glass that you believe is most suitable, also pay attention to why the other glasses are incompatible. There is as much to be learned from those that bring forth the wrong character as there is from the ones that highlight your wine.”
The tasters, including Mount Pleasant Estates and Winery's Chuck Dressel (below left) and Riedel (below right), assumed their positions at the tables. It was to be a silent tasting—no sharing of notes, no discussion of findings.
In the first round, the tasters eliminated all but four glasses. Each panelist used his or her own winery’s Vignoles, with non-winery affiliates breaking up an assortment of other varietal wines. The group then reduced the glass selection to the four most popular by voting (though the results were not unanimous).
In the next sequence, everyone was given the same wine, disguised in brown paper bags to eliminate preconceived notions. Each taster then picked a single glass. Once the votes were counted, two glasses emerged as favorites. Discussion began on the pros and cons of each finalist (see below). Arguments were made in a roundtable-like forum, with some noting that one glass “amplified too many spice notes” and that the other glass gave off “too many aromatics.” Everyone agreed that the Vignoles grape is incredibly versatile, producing wines that range from bone-dry to dessert-style sweet. Therefore, it was next to impossible to find a perfect glass for all varieties. Finding the most feasible option was the goal.
In the end, it was practically a split draw. So Riedel instructed the tasters to take both shapes home and continue tasting. At press time, the group hoped to make a final decision in the next several weeks. Check back for updates, as well as when the Missouri Vignoles Riedel glass will be available.
