The 100 points wine glass for that pesky wine snob on your list
Got a brother-in-law who’s a complete wine snob? And you haven’t a clue what to get him for Christmas? How about the 100 points wine glass from the luxe French crystal firm Lalique?
Designed in collaboration with wine writer James Suckling, former longtime European bureau chief for Wine Spectator and now writing about wine at his own wine tasting and video website www.jamessuckling.com. Suckling has tasted more than 150,000 wines over the course of his 30-year career. That would include just about every 100-point wine on the planet since at Wine Spectator he was involved in passing out the high marks.
The “Lalique & James Suckling 100 Points Wine Glass” is meant to be the ideal glass, “wonderful to drink any type of wine — white or red, young or old, first growth or “petit château,” according to a press release.
That concept is a direct challenge to the wine glass empire of Georg Reidel of Riedel glassworks in Austria who has spent his career designing wine-specific glasses — one for Barolo, for Tempranillo, for Hermitage, etc. But Suckling never completely succumbed to that idea. Instead, as he writes on his blog, he traveled the world for the past three decades with “a small leather case of four Riedel glasses. I always tasted from the same glasses. My experience with this made me believe in a ‘one glass for everything’ philosophy.”
He’s posted a great video of the process involved in designing and making the glass. Who knew glassblowers at Lalique wore baggy shorts and black t-shirts emblazoned with the company’s name? Even 100-plus-year-old firms are not immune to splashy marketing.
It’s fascinating to watch how a wine glass of this quality is actually made and the incredible skill involved. Lalique designer Marc Larminaux tells Suckling it takes as many as 15 to 20 workers to make each glass over a period of 4 to 5 days. It is a beautiful glass.
And for someone who buys wine religiously on the point system, i.e., those self-proclaimed connoisseurs who won’t deign to drink any bottle below 95 points, this could be the perfect present.
For more information and orders, please email glass@jamessuckling.com, $140 a stem. Shipping now for the holidays.
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