Cognac glass SOMMELIERS XO 160 ml, Riedel

Product detailed description

The old cognac glass is long gone! In 1988, Hennessy's head taster Yann Fillioux, together with Georges Riedel, mused over a glass of cognac. Tasting from a multitude of shapes of glasses blindfolded, the original glasses of different sizes remained halfway through. It turns out that these much-loved "balloon" glasses have too large a vapor surface area and over-emphasize the alcohol and its sharpness.

"That doesn't surprise me," says Yann Fillioux, "we have been using slim, small-volume glasses for years in our internal tastings at Hennessy."

Conclusion of the blind tasting at Riedel. In the second round, top quality Hennessy XO and Paradies were tasted.

It was the defined shape of the glasses that showed too low an odour intensity for the V.S.O.P. in the sniff test. This can be explained by the fact that mature cognac loses its austerity with age. We were therefore looking for a shape that would concentrate the aroma.

We have increased the diameter of the glass, narrowed the shape upwards and ensured that the classically ripe, quality notes of the bouquet are expressed in perfect intensity without the distraction of alcohol. This is how the Cognac XO Sommeliers glass was created.

SOMMELIERS series:

Claus Riedel introduced the first series of glasses for connoisseurs in 1973 in Orvieto in collaboration with the Italian Sommeliers Association A.I.S. (Associazione Italiana Sommeliers). The series includes 10 different sizes.

From this moment on, the world of wine has changed fundamentally.

In different regions and on different continents, wines are produced today that did not exist or were completely unknown at the time. Therefore, the development of the Sommeliers series was continued by his son George Riedel until the Sommeliers became an extensive "vitrum-vinoteque" at the highest level of technical development.

In 1991 Robert Parker, editor of Wine Advocate magazine wrote: "The best glasses, both from a technical point of view and from the point of view of maximum enjoyment, are those made by Riedel. The effect that these glasses give to fine wine is truly extraordinary. I can't express enough how much of a difference it makes."

Thanks to worldwide demand, the Sommeliers series is now the absolute top wine glass series and the most successful hand-blown wine glass series in the world. Each glass is made separately: the top is blown in a mould, the stem and base are shaped by hand according to production methods developed in the early 1900s.

The glassmakers use their talents, their skills and care for details are essential to give the Sommeliers series the craftsmanship customers expect. Sommeliers are made of glass with more than 24% lead content.