Glassware

Why these and not something cheaper

A pressed machine glass has a thick rim and a stem sized to survive a dishwasher rack. You taste the rim before you taste the wine. Grassl blows each piece by mouth, which is why the rim disappears and the stem reads as almost nothing, and Grassl still rates the result dishwasher safe.

The batch is glassmaking sand, soda, dolomite, potassium, potassium oxide and recycled glass, melted lead-free into what Grassl describes as resembling the composition of pure rock crystal. Grassl puts the labour at five artisans to produce a single stemmed glass during hot shaping, then slow cooling and five further finishing steps.

Which glass for which wine

The Vigneron Series is shaped on the feedback of working winemakers and divides four ways. Mineralité, 430 ml with the narrowest rim Grassl makes, is for high-acid whites: Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Chablis. Liberté, 460 ml, takes whites with weight and doubles as a grower Champagne glass. Cru, 670 ml, is the aromatic red glass, Sangiovese and Pinot Noir. 1855, 760 ml, is for the biggest reds in the cellar.

The Elemental Series is the everyday set. Versatile at 420 ml handles red, white and rosé without switching glasses. The Champagne glass is a 310 ml tulip rather than a flute, so a sparkling wine actually smells of something. The Carafe holds 800 ml, which takes a full bottle with room to spare.

Glassware ships separately from wine

Glassware is fulfilled by our partner retailer rather than from our own warehouse, so an order containing both wine and glassware arrives as two deliveries with two tracking numbers. Glassware parcels do not need a signature, which wine deliveries always do.