14 Day Australia - New Zealand Cruise
Sydney, Australia - Auckland, New Zealand
Celebrity Millennium

VINUM

Introduced in 1986, Vinum was the first machine-made series of glasses in history to be based exclusively on the characteristics of quality, reasonably price and wide distribution.

Vinum has had a permanent impact on the globe's wine glass culture. These glasses have proved to consumers and restauranteurs that the pleasure of consuming wine starts with the glass.

The Vinum collection, developed by Georg Riedel on the principle that the content commands the shape, is the "Vitrum-Vinothek" for every day use. Vinum is made of over 24% lead crystal.

TIME MAGAZINE

"The Riedel family has never stamped its name on a single bottle of wine. But over the past 50 years, this Austrian clan of master glassmakers has done more to enhance the oenophile's pleasure than almost any winemaking dynasty".

Vinum/Montrachet/Chardonnay - Ref. No. 6416/97

For the appreciation of dry white wines exceeding 14% alcohol or oak-aged full bodied, concentrated dry white wines with medium to low acidity such as wines from Mersault and vineyard sites such as Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet and made from the grape variety Chardonay.

Vinum/Sauvignon Blanc - Ref. No. 6416/33

For the appreciation of dry aromatic white wines below 14% alcohol, medium to light body with high acidity such as wines from Bordeaux (white), Graves Blanc, Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume and made from grape varieties such as Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and sweet white wines such as Sauternes, Tokaji, Beerenauslese, Icewine.

Vinum/Bordeaux - Ref. No. 6416/0

For the appreciation of concentrated, intense red wines, high in tanin and medium acidity, such as wines from Bordeaux (red) or wines made from grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc.

Vinum/Burgundy - Ref. No. 6416/7

For the appreciation of medium bodied red wines with high acidity and medium to low tannins such as wines from Barbaresca, Barolo, Beaujolais, Burgundy (red) or wines made from grape varieties like Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, Gamay.

I thought this was just going to be a sales job to get us to purchase wine glases from the Riedel Wine Glass Company. My wife and I figured one wine glass can't be any different than another and their claims would just be a bunch of hot air. However, in the presentation, they had us test the Riedel glasses for ourselves. They had us take a sip of each wine in a normal wine glass. Then they had us pour the wine from the glass we had just used into a Riedel glass that was the proper type glass for the particular type of wine. We were amazed to find how much better it tasted sipping in from the Riedel glass! Maybe it was just because the wine got a little more exposed to the air from pouring it from one glass to the other. But then they had us pour that same wine from the Riedel glass back into the regular wine glass. Again the wine did not taste as good as it had in the Riedel glass. We were convinced!

The wine tasting and presentation explained a number of reasons why wine tastes better in a Riedel glass and how each type of glass is scientifically engineered to match each type of wine and to match how taste buds are arranged on our toungue. First of all, the Riedel wine glasses have a cut glass edge rather than a lip that most other wine glasses have. They explained that the lip causes the wine to improperly flow onto our toungue. Next they expalined that each type of Riedel glass is designed for particular types of wines. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay glasses have a larger bowl in order to expose more surface area of the wine to the air which adds to their flavor. Heavier wines like Cabernet and Zinfandel don't need this larger surface area and thus the glasses for those wines don't have such large bowls. There were a number of other details that they explained as to why wine tastes so much better when sipped from a Riedel wine glass.

Over the years after Barbara and I took this cruise we learned a lot more about wine. A few years later my wife and I actually started our own 40 acre vineyard called the Silver Rails Vineyards with the help of a friend who is much more an expert on vines and wines than we are. After attending many wine tastings at various wineries, vineyards, and wine bars, we learned that most of the more sophisticated ones do serve their wines in Riedel wine glasses. In our own home we now only use Riedel wine glasses and we have pretty much every type of wine glass appropriate for serving each type of wine.