“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.”
— Paulo Coelho
With the regularly scheduled English Wine Week postponed for another month, we nonetheless want to take the opportunity to celebrate the rich variety of English wines and the elegant stemware that somehow makes them taste a little better.
Yes, the shape of the glass does affect the experience. Unlike a martini glass (which we also have some experience with), or a tumbler, a wine glass bows inwards towards the rim. As a result, the alcohol aromas concentrate around the rim, which means when we point our nose towards the centre of the glass, the scent of the ethanol is muted, allowing the wine’s aroma to come through more distinctly. As craftsmen, it’s our job to bring precision into everything we create, and we believe that every wine glass deserves that extra little bit of attention.
And we’ve had some time to hone our craft. After all, the team here at Grant Macdonald London have been making wine glasses for quite a while. In the 1970s, our delicately crafted silver wine goblets and tray caused quite a stir, and our craftsmen worked hard to push boundaries and develop new techniques to create fascinating patterns like the knotty wood seen on these silver wine boxes.
More recently, our Paragon selection has provided a showcase for the crystal which is hand blown and engraved in Somerset by unrivalled craftspeople. Crystal is glass with lead oxide added, giving the material a high refractive index to allow it to catch the light and sparkle. The glass is blown into moulds we designed, before the cuts are painstakingly applied by hand. The finishing touch is a polish that brings out the shine, before the glass is frosted to lend its classic look a modern edge.
So, a toast to English Wine and English craftsmanship. We’ll drink to that.