What is the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon in July when you still can’t travel to Napa? You join your wine club’s virtual wine tasting. I was excited when I received the email that my club partnered with Riedel for a virtual tasting via zoom. I invited my friend Randi to join, she brought her husband, Todd and friend, Dawn to join us.
The set up–four bottles of wine and two tasting packs from Riedel that contain four specific glasses. The performance tasting set has a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon varietal glasses.
Philip O’Conor from Handwritten and Anne Koziar from Riedel hosted the Zoom tasting. As our experiment, we also had my normal wine tasting glasses that I’ve used for home parties. When Philip kicked off the tasting, he turned it over to Anne to talk about the glasses. These performance glasses are beautiful, they have ridges inside to help the wine land in the perfect spot on your pallet.
We started off with the Sauvignon Blanc from Handwritten. I’ve had “The Author” before, and it is one of my absolute favorites, yes I’m biased as a club member, but the Handwritten is so different from Jessup Cellars. Both are delicious, the Jessup is my favorite patio pounder and Handwritten is so good with food, cheese, seafood and chicken dishes. The Riedel glass for Sauvignon Blanc really enhanced the nose, with the narrow shape, it allowed the fragrance from the wine to be intense and beautiful. When comparing it to the standard wine glass the aromas were distinctly different. While I knew there would be some difference, the distinction was amazing.
Anne showed us a beautiful Riedel decanter, which I never thought to decant a white wine. She also has us use another Riedel glass to see the difference in the “right” glass to another glass.
We then moved on to the Jessup Cellars Chardonnay, my friend Nancy’s favorite. I like the Jessup Chardonnay, but having it in the Riedel glass made this wine spectacular. The difference between the standard glass and the Riedel was very distinct. If you would have told me the week before this tasting that the glass made that big a difference, I would not have believed it. But this tasting proved Riedel’s point that the glass matters. You were able to pick up the fruit flavors in the wine, minimized the oak characteristics and brought out the best in the wine. I don’t think I’ll ever drink Chardonnay out of a different, non-varietal glass, again.
Next up, the Jessup Cellars Pinot Noir, this is a Pinot I have enjoyed over the years and I’m not normally a Pinot fan. Using the Pinot Noir specific glass the Jessup Cellars wine was amazing. Tasting it out of the standard glass was ok, so once again the Riedel glass won this varietal. We were encouraged to try the wine in another Riedel glass, I tried it in the Chardonnay glass, it definitely didn’t taste the same. This tasting was a fun way to experiment with the glasses and the wines.
The final wine for this virtual tasting was the Handwritten Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine didn’t show a noticeable difference between the Riedel and the basic wine glass I use for parties, most likely because the shape was similar. However, the beauty of the Riedel glass along with the wonderful Oak Knoll Cabernet was a match made in heaven. Anne showed us some other beautiful Riedel decanters, the shapes and sizes along with the beautiful glass showcased the best that Riedel has to offer.
Philip and Anne took questions on Zoom after we wrapped up the tasting. I’m excited to attend Part 2 in August. This was one of the most educational virtual tastings I’ve been able to participate it. I’d expect nothing less from my favorite club. Jessup and Handwritten bring wine tasting to club members in many ways, including in your own home. Join the mailing list, follow on Facebook or Instagram. There are many ways to continue to enjoy wine in this COVID world.
We took the opportunity to have a dinner after the tasting. I love sharing food and wine. I pulled out a Handwritten 2016 Pinot Noir and the Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. The Pinot Noir is fabulous, even more so in the right glass.
Cheers my friends, until next time, enjoy some good wine and food with friends.
Charlene and Randi