Received these new wine glasses a couple of days ago. Great packaging, and the glass has a nice look and feel in the hand. Time for my clumsy mitt to give this delicate creature a test drive with a wine pour. For comparison purposes we will also pour into our current favorite wine glass, the Grassl Liberté. To provide a real-life scenario but also up the risk of accident, we will also be eating during this evaluation.
We opened a 2015 Thomas-Labaille Sancerre Les Monts Damnés. This is a Sancerre producer that is maybe a bit under the radar, but it also gets a bit of love too. We have enjoyed several vintages, so I guess we are fans of this wine. The 2014 was outstanding and I remember going back for more and they were all gone. I will usually buy a couple of bottles whenever I see a new vintage at my local wine shop.
Look of the glasses: The GLASVIN is a very gradual tulip shape with the width not varying much from the bottom of the bowl to the rim. Its shape almost announces the glass as “all purpose”. The Grassl Liberté might also be considered the “all purpose” glass in their line, but the shape is a more exaggerated tulip, with a broad bowl and a relatively narrow rim. The light on our back porch seemed to give the empty GLASVIN glass a very slight blue-violet tinge of color. It was there or it was not depending on the angle the glass was viewed at. For comparison, the empty GLASSL appeared crystal clear at all viewing angles. The stem of the GLASVIN was noticeably thinner than the GRASSL stem. The glass at the rim was thinner with the GLASSL than the GLASVIN.
Feel of the glasses with wine: We previously thought the GRASSL was very delicate in feel, but the GLASVIN is even more so. I think the thinness of the stem contributes to this. It also contributes an initial feeling of being top heavy, but the more we picked it up the less this was noticeable. It was not an issue. We like the feel of both glasses; the GRASSL has a more sturdy feel, the GLASVIN a lighter feel.
Verdict: We like the GLASVIN. Halfway through the bottle of wine we were giving the GRASSL a preference. As we finished the wine, we were leaning towards the GLASVIN. Both nice wine glasses, and a clear step up from our everyday Reidel glasses.
P.S. I had a question from an interested reader about the weight of these glasses. I checked that this morning as I pulled the glasses from the drying rack to put away. The Liberte came in at 101 gm and 86 gm. The Glasvin came in at 91 gm and 94 gm. Clearly there’s variation in handblown glasses; clearly I had the heavier Liberte last night; clearly my comments about which glass seemed lighter are not worth much. Both glasses are light. Both glasses are nice.
GRASSL Liberté on left, GLASVIN on right
