Last year Riedel unveiled a writhing, snake-like decanter called "Eve". No doubt, Eve is a tough design act to follow, yet this year's Riedel decanters embrace the design challenge and deliver even more...
For wine-lovers who crave the art and theater of elegant wine service, Riedel's new Black Tie decanters will be an indulgence. With plenty of sophisticated, sensibly designed functionality to these highly stylized decanters, the new decanters also show an inspired and heightened design focus on the grip and feel in the hand.
Slightly smaller, though no less dramatic, the new shapes , the Bliss, Smile and Touch decanters are designed to be held by the bottle's body rather than the neck. The unschooled might be tempted to pick one up by the straight neck, but the thrill and joy of pouring definitely comes from grasping the bottle.
Each design is different yet all manage to fit comfortably in the hand and offer a very secure grip that makes pouring with one hand easy. The Smile decanter in particular is meant to be gripped on the bottom of the bottle, almost pinching the bottle on either side of the glass, to manipulate the pour. It's quite exhilarating to do this and definitely heightens the theater of wine service! Riedel decanters are all handmade and as such require highly skilled craftsmen to make them. George Riedel is visibly proud of these designs and is quick to credit his very talented glassmakers as the real geniuses. All decanters are made in Austria by a small team of glass craftsmen and have very little mold involvement; there are some molds used but most of the decanter is free blown.
When looking at these wine vessels there's no question that they are works of art. The craftsmen are so talented - they are glass artists really. Like art, each piece is unique even though similar to one another. Just as everyone has his own handwriting variation there are slight differences to make each decanter a one-of-a-kind.
It's amazing to realize that only a hand-full of people on earth can even do this work. It requires artistic talent and flawless hand -eye coordination. Little demand for such high-quality glass production and the lack of artisanal training keep the talent pool shallow. Only 1000 pieces of each decanter are made for sale globally, and they are generally made by a team of 2-3 craftsmen. In terms of productivity it doesn't take much more than 1 minute to actually produce the decanter (glass cools quickly afterall) but as with many things, the devil is in the detail. The finishing process adds considerable extra work- just polishing and finishing the spout rim takes careful craftsmanship. For design ideas Riedel works with an internal team and likes to add a decorative touch of black or other colours to highlight the contours of the glass.
Decanting is very popular with many wine lovers and one doesn't have to be a connoisseur to practice the art. Because the main purpose of decanting is to allow the wine to aerate, or in the case of aged wine to remove sediment, its important to have the right tool to do the decanting. The Black Tie decanters are certainly fancy tools, but they double as an "objet d'art" that provides pleasure even when not in service. Riedel decanters and glassware is distributed by Cellarmaster Wines.
Contributed by Sarah Mayo, TLN Editor
Photos by Jessica Tan
