“I take a sip of wine, and it floods across my mouth–a perfectly balanced cabernet that tastes of yeast, fruit, and stone. Then I take a sip from another glass. This wine strikes the tip of my tongue like a dart. It’s pure booze, and, seconds later, I’m left with a dank, bitter aftertaste. This wine has clearly gone bad; I should really pour the bottle out.
In fact, both glasses contain the same 2014 BV cabernet. And both are what most of us would describe as a “red wine glass.” But the first glass was designed to mellow out the big fruit and alcohol of cabernets. The second glass was built to concentrate the fruit and subdue the acidity of a different kind of wine: pinot noir. I just learned the dangers of drinking a great wine out of a glass designed for another varietal.”

“They’re beautiful glasses, for sure, but I wanted to put wine snobbery to the test. And as we sipped wine after wine over the course of an hour, Riedel proved to this cynic how the mere shape of a glass can dramatically change your experience of wine.”

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