Riedel Launches “Winewings”

How it all started

In Summer 2018, in the hot and sunny Tyrolean Alps, Georg Riedel found himself asked by a customer to create “the ultimate glass” for the “King of Grapes”– Cabernet Sauvignon – a glass which would become the inspiration for a new glassware collection, Riedel Winewings.

For Georg, the challenge was how to begin research for this new glass. It helped that he had long loved the specific wine for which he had been commissioned to design the glass. With passion and enthusiasm, and with a coffee in hand, Georg made a start. Sketching the old fashioned way, he aimed to create a new shape, something revolutionary and supremely functional, a shape never seen before which, while respecting the 2,000-year-old art of glass-blowing, would eschew the egg-shape bowl developed by Claus Riedel and challenge the perception of how a modern functional wine glass should be.

Slowly, a new shape emerged: A flat-bottomed glass, wide and reminiscent of the wing of an aircraft, complete with winglets. As a new idea formed, Georg spent more than a year experimenting, tasting, sampling, benchmarking and fine-tuning. By making changes to shape, size and rim diameter, through computer-aided design and many prototypes, what began as one glass for one grape varietal developed into seven different glasses to represent the most popular grape varietals.

Riedel Winewings was born and was about to take flight!

Why a flat bottom?

In his own words, Georg Riedel describes the evolution and ultimate functionality of Riedel Winewings: “We make our first impressions by eye when assessing our chosen wine in the glass, and then we smell before we ever taste. I chose a flat and stretched bottom, with a wing-like shape to increase the surface between wine and air, which increases the levels of evaporation and develops a greater intensity of aroma. When positioning one’s head to the glass, the nose is closer and is exposed to the wider surface of the wine. However, this alone would not fully deliver the optimal aroma of each grape variety and so, to capture the delicate layered aromas, it was necessary to curve the glass walls and to correctly calibrate the opening of each glass with its rim diameter.”

About Riedel Winewings

There are seven styles: three for red wines, three for white and one for Champagne or sparkling wines. This glass collection is designed personally by Georg Riedel. It pushing the boundaries of the conventional wine glass shape and is striking in its design and in the words of Georg Riedel is “inherently functional, helping the wines’ aromas and flavors take flight”.

As Georg Riedel says, as he launches his newest creation, “If your wine could choose a glass, it would be Riedel – and that glass would be Riedel Winewings!”

Georg J. Riedel Honoured by Wine Spectator Magazine

10TH GENERATION GLASSMAKER ACKNOWLEDGED FOR “DISTINGUISHED SERVICE”

Writing in Wine Spectator, News Editor Mitch Frank states how Georg Riedel “revolutionized how we drink wine by spreading the gospel of his family’s wine glasses”. Georg educated tens of thousands of wine drinkers on the benefits of varietal-specific glassware and brought financial stability to the company in the 1980s through savvy business development and an evangelist’s approach to marketing his products.

“I am sincerely grateful to Wine Spectator for offering me this outstanding reward and it is an honor to be named in line with the most respected personalities of the wine and food industry,” says Riedel. “I am not the first Austrian, but the first glassmaker to be called to the Wine Spectator Olympus, and am very proud to share the honor with my team and family.”

Riedel follows luminaries of the global wine community in his receipt of the award and stands apart as the first glassmaker to receive the accolade. Past honorees include Julia Child, Robert Mondavi, Christian Moueix, Angelo Gaja, Francis Ford Coppola, Andre Tchelistcheff, fellow Austrian Wolfgang Puck, and Californian Governor Gavin Newsom – larger-than-life personalities whose contributions to the wine and culinary world are innumerable.

The Riedel family’s business began in 1756 when Johann Leopold Riedel (3rd generation) founded a glass factory in Bohemia (in what is today’s Czech Republic). In 1945, the successful family business came to an abrupt end due to World War II, when all German possessions were nationalized and German-speaking people expatriated.

In 1956, some two hundred years after the first factory was opened, Walter Riedel (8th generation) and Claus Riedel (9th generation) were offered the unique opportunity to take over the bankrupt glass factory Tiroler Glashütte in Kufstein, Austria. It was in this new period that Claus Riedel became known as the first glass designer to create wine-friendly glassware. His designs were launched from the 1950s to the 1970s, and continue to have a major impact on today’s universally known glass shapes.

Georg Riedel (10th generation, born 1949) joined the family business in 1973 as the company’s accountant. At an early stage, he became passionate about wine and how glass shapes profoundly influence the perception of wine’s aromas and flavors. Gifted with fine senses and supported with strong commercial talents, he quickly took over the company’s direction, developing varietal specific glassware.

At the same time, a New World wine boom created new demand and highlighted new wines of classic varietals grown on foreign soils. The launch of Riedel’s first machine-made line, VINUM – the perfect wine glass at a popular price level – built the foundation for a solid future for the company.

Georg opened his first subsidiary as importer and distributor in the USA in 1979 and have since opened eight more around the globe including China, Japan, and Australia. He was the first to approach wine distributors to represent the Riedel brand, which grew the company’s presence around the world to over 100 countries. As a shrewd businessman, without bank loans and using accumulated company cash, Riedel acquired the then much larger glass companies Nachtmann and Spiegelau in 2004. With this takeover came the opportunity for Riedel to produce all glasses in the company’s own factories.

Today, Georg’s children Laetizia, a solicitor and Maximilian, the current CEO, are the Riedel team members responsible for directing and guiding the family business as the 11th generation.

Source: Riedel, Austria

SANDRO BOTTEGA AWARDED RIEDEL WINE MAKER OF THE YEAR IN TORONTO

Sandro Bottega, the owner and Managing Director of the Italian winery and distillery Bottega, will be honoured this evening with the 2018 Riedel® Winemaker of the Year Award. 

Sandro Bottega will receive the award from The Cambridge Food & Wine Society, on behalf of Riedel, the Austrian crystal glassmaker who is the world leader in functional wine decanter design.

The official ceremony is held this evening at the historical Biagio Ristorante, 155 King Street East in Toronto.  In attendance will be Canadian authorities and European consuls, the Riedel family, Mrs. Shauneen E. Bruder, Honorary Consul General of Luxembourg in Toronto and Leo Chan, President of the Cambridge Food & Wine Society.

The Riedel® Winemaker of the Year Award is granted to Sandro Bottega for “having enchanted wine and gastronomic art lovers since 1977, in over 120 countries worldwide, with his artistic skills, the entrepreneurial ability and energy, and the quality and genuineness of the products”.

Sandro Bottega comments: “I feel deeply honoured and grateful, and I dedicate this prestigious recognition to my parents and to the whole company who has worked with creativity, passion and humbleness to produce wines, grappa and liqueurs, always in compliance with the corporate values: Quality (Italian taste and authenticity), Design (expression of the excellent aesthetic character of being made in Italy) and Social Responsibility towards the environment and the community”.

This award has been presented to great names of the world of wine, such as Robert Mondavi, U.S.A. (2005), Karl Kaiser and Donald Ziraldo, Canada (2006), Lamberto Marchesi de Frescobaldi, Italy (2007), Léon Beyer, France (2008), João Nicolau de Almedia, Portugal (2009), Miguel Torres, Spain (2014).

The evening at Biagio Ristorante, whose theme is “Marco Polo Revisited”, will feature an array of international tastes including Italian food and wines, as well as grappa and single malt Scotch whisky. Funds raised from this event will go towards the charity, Grapes for Humanity Canada.

Riedel Launches New Champagne Stemware from the Superleggero and Veritas Collections

4425-28 gefÅllt auf schwarzEarlier this year Maximilian Riedel launched the Sommeliers Superleggero series — he says: “Drawing on 60 years of wine experience and expertise, the new Sommeliers Superleggero Series is designed to carry the charm of a handmade glass with added superior lightness.” The hand blown Superlegerro Champagne stemware retails for £270/pair.

Riedel also launched this year, from the Veritas range, machine blown Champagne stemware that retails for £55/pair.

I met up with Matt Knight, Business Manager of Riedel UK, at The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, at the Royal Opera House, London yesterday and he was very happy to show me the new champagne stemware. Both have the same bowl shape and size, are lead-free and the stems have been lengthened creating a more slimmer and elegant steamware.

My preference is the Superlegerro – the stem was a bit longer giving it a bit more elegant feel.

Dishwasher Safe: Yes
Height: 260mm

Liz Palmer

’90 Dom Pérignon Rosé Œnothèque Pairs With Riedel Pinot Noir Vinum XL

Glasses are definitely a key part of wine tasting. Finding the right glass for each individual wine could well be the hobby of many wine geeks, still for me it is also crucial to provide the best possible experience to Dom Pérignon lovers. I have always had a friendly relationship with Georg Riedel, born of our mutual esteem. The Riedel family business, established in 1756 in Bohemia, is known worldwide for its high-quality crystal glasses: their Burgundy Grand Cru crystal glass, handmade and mouth-blown, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Last August I had the visit of Maximilian Riedel (Georg’s son, representing the 11th generation of the family in the glass business) who came to me with a large selection of stemware: our aim that day was to find the perfect glass for Dom Pérignon Rosé, a glass that would do justice to the wine by presenting it in the best conditions for appreciation. It would have been possible to create a specific glass for this Champagne, but I preferred to choose from the existing collection. At the time I also had the upcoming 1990 Dom Pérignon Rosé Œnothèque in mind. I settled on the Pinot Noir Vinum XL, which is not so surprising given the assertive Pinot Noir character of Dom Pérignon Rosé. This fantastic glass really shows the wine in an uncompromising way, especially on the palate.

The first aspect that grabbed our attention was the intensity of the nose and how the wine could breathe in the glass. Second, I felt it put the fruit right at the center of the tasting experience without compromising the complexity of the aromas. Third, it rendered the right expression on the palate, especially the amplitude and texture, both of them fundamental qualities of Dom Pérignon. And incidentally, I could only appreciate the lyre shape of this glass that resonates with the Oriental theme of the Silk Road dinners!

Richard Geoffroy
of Dom Pérignon