Almost 10 years ago, my good friend who was the CEO in charge of imports for a large wine distributor in Southern California for over 30 years, was approached by a wineglass maker from Austria to review their line and provide feedback prior to them entering the US market. They sent him a few of all of their different glasses.
When I was visiting him a few weeks later, we sampled some of the glasses with appropriate wines and were quite surprised and impressed as to how exceptional they were with only a couple of tweaks to recommend.
We were also impressed that these were elegant mouth blown, unleaded crystal, had wide bases and narrow stems plus having adequate size and shape with a low equator to allow for the more air exposure from the increased surface area and at the same time funnel the aromas for a optimal sensory experience.
The top Zalto line was the only one I could think of that would be close enough in quality and as it has turned out, it’s only the Zalto Burgundy stem that may be as good IMHO. The Sophienwald Grand Cru champagne stems far exceeded any other and the white and red wine stems are top notch. All provide a lightweight, feel good, hand held experience and I learned to safely hand wash each one properly in hot water although other people have placed them in dishwashers designed to handle such glasses gently.
Sophienwald is distributed in the US by a couple who live in Switzerland. {https://www.theperfect.glass/ } I immediately reached out to them and once they were set up to deliver, I ordered some glasses which I now have built up to having 8 of every type of wine glass they make replacing all of the Riedel Sommelier glasses I was using.
Over the years, constant email communication with this couple, Simon and Ginger, kept us connected and it was clear these are good people and we established a friendship before ever having met in person.
Ginger, who hails from Texas, is now handling the US market exclusively and visited Santa Barbara last year to provide stemware for the annual World of Pinot Noir event held locally in Santa Barbara. Roelanda and I invited her for lunch and enjoyed making the direct connection and discovering she is as wonderful as she comes off in email communications.
Over the years, I have turned on many of my wine friends to Sophienwald glasses and posted notes on WineBeserker. All of my Monday Night Blind Wine Dinner Group have them as do many others including dear friends in Arkansas.
As it turns out, Ginger is making another trip to the area and one of my friends who has purchased many more glasses than I have, invited her to stay in their guest cottage and he set up an in home dinner for her with Roelanda and I and another guest invited.
It turned out to be a stellar event orchestrated by our generous hosts with amazing food and wines served in the righteously appropriate Sophienwald stemware of course. We each had an Essential glass for our water, 2 Grand Cru Champagne stems, a red Burgundy stem for the white Burgundy and a Zalto red Burgundy stem for the DRC.
The dinner menu:
Caviar and accoutrements
Chilean Sea Bass with greens
Duck Confit with roasted potatoes and green beans
Mac and cheese vegetarian entree
Chocolate cake
And our wine list was pretty special as well:
2002 Louis Roederer Cristal Late Release
2008 Louis Roederer Cristal
2017 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne
2012 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Echezeaux
We poured both Cristals at the same time and I first went to the 2008 which in retrospect I would have reversed as it dwarfed the 2002 with its power, depth and complexity which the 2002 did not possess.
Here’s some notes on the wines:
2008 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- the color was a still youthful light yellow and the nose offered an abundance of inviting and enticing aromas that included honey and ginger accented yellow apple with a lemon chaser; the taste profile was more of the same while showcasing its power, richness, depth and complexity which was somewhat softened by its creamy mouthfeel; with all that it had going on, the hallmark for this bottle was its amazing balance; this was the best of all of the 2008 Cristals I’ve had and even though it has years to go before reaching its apogee, it provided an epic exceptional experience.
2002 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- {edited in LATE RELEASE}- my first notes published here on this were made when I thought it was the regular 2002 release, but thanks to Brad Baker, he caught it as the LR {see below}; I’d had one other bottle of this about 2 yrs ago and it was huge in every way and mostly likely drank about 10 years before being ready; this bottle seemed to lack in power, depth and complexity and also made a statement for individuality as it was like none other featuring tropical fruit notes that included tangerine, mandarin orange, lemon, kiwi and baked apple with a brown sugar dusting; later on, some honeyed pear and apple notes joined in and the sweetness factor climbed another few degrees; the gold color was deceiving as I expected some much more advanced notes; it was good, but different and a bit too sweet for my preference.
The bottle we had was comprised of 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and was disgorged December 2014 at 9 gpl and released February 2020 as decoded from the back label.
The 2008 glass and bottle is on the left of each with the 2002 LR on thei right
2017 PIERRE-YVES COLIN-MOREY CORTON CHARLEMAGNE GRAND CRU- this was truly outstanding and like the others, I had a sip and then just admired all that I experienced afterwards; then I had another sip and sat back for another blissful journey; this wine was truly stupendous as it epitomized all that is good in white Burgundy; with nicely integrated oak influence, this balanced beauty featured toasty mineral laced lemon and yellow apple fruit with a hint of flint while being delivered in an oily texture; it had PYCM preciseness, power and energy from the nose through the tail.
2012 DOMAINE ROMANEE de la CONTI EXHEZEAUX GRAND CRU- poured into the Zalto red Burgundy glass, this amazing wine sported a youthful red purple color and inviting aromas of spicy red raspberry joined by cinnamon and pepper laced black raspberry, cranberry and strawberry on the palate; it was mindful of many of Burt Williams’s Pinots from the early 1990s with one big difference and that had to do with the body, weight and texture; the seamless layers of depth was pronounced by the velvety mouthfeel that was the hallmark for this truly wondrous wine that I would have appreciated immensely even in a blind format.
The generosity of our hosts was over the top and we had an epic night of fine food, great wines, amazing ocean views at sunset and friendships.
Cheers,
Blake
Roelanda, me and Ginger
