Riedel Wine Glass Experience – A Must Do For Wine Lovers!

If you haven’t done a Riedel Wine Glass Experience tasting class yet, add it to your bucket list this year. It truly is an eye-opening, or should I say palate-opening experience 😉

I actually did one of these wine glass tasting experiences back in 2012 with Mark Baulderstone – the Australian CEO of Riedel. It was an amazing experience, one that has stuck with me and I still have some of the glasses from the tasting set we got at it, however a couple have broken over the years!

So when Mark reached out to me late last year to see if I’d be interested in attending the January 2025 Riedel Wine Glass Experience in Melbourne, it had to be done – as long as we could get babysitters for our kids that is!

What was extra special about this wine glass experience is that it was hosted by none other than 11th-generation Maximilian Riedel. Max was insightful, witty and incredibly entertaining.

A big thank you to Mark and Erin for inviting me and Mr Spittoon along – it really was a fabulous night and an absolutely brilliant way to kick off the new year.

The new Veloce Riedel wine glass range is utterly beautiful and incredibly light. They are machine made but feel handmade and their 100 mm diameter base sets a world record!

We cannot turn a $10 bottle into a $1k bottle but we can bring the best out in a bottle. – Maximillian Riedel

Again I walked away from one of these tastings amazed at how different wine glasses can impact your enjoyment of a wine. It was amazing talking to the people around us at the tasting too who were utterly shocked by the difference each glass had on their experience with each of the wines we tried.

Wine is similar to a game of golf, a different club for a different play and a different glass for a different wine. – Maximillian Riedel

As I hinted on Instagram, even though this is my second time doing one of these wine glass tastings (albeit 13 years apart!), I did learn a few new wine tips…

Seasoning your wine glass

Have you ever thought about seasoning your wine glass? This was a totally new concept to me which I learnt at this tasting.

So what you want to do when you have a new glass straight out of the cupboard or even at a restaurant is tilt your glass to the side and swirl it right up to the tip.

This prepares your glass and covers ever part of it with the wine you are about to drink. It will get rid of any residue, dust, etc.

Think of it as preparing your glass for what is to come for maximum enjoyment.

Plus as Max said “the more you drink, the more you swirl” – which means if you only have two fingers of wine in your glass and you do some swirling, it won’t spill.

The two finger rule for pouring wine

We all know that wine serving temperature is important for max enjoyment.

However I do love Max’s recommendation on the “two finger rule” – which basically means to always pour in about a 2 finger width of wine into your glass.

This will help it not get too warm and go past it’s perfect drinking temperature.

The Chardonnay diet

When you don’t want to drink anything else but Chardonnay! Now this is a diet I can easily get onboard with. Love how you think Max!

Wine yoga

It’s really important when smelling a wine that you put your nose as deep into the glass as possible. If you wear glasses like me, then your glasses should clink the wine glass. And also take at least two big whiffs.

As Max said its wine yoga – inhale and exhale deeply to times at least.

Shock decanting

Shock decanting is when you literally tip a bottle directly up vertically and it slashes down vigorously into your decanter. The idea of this is to mix oxygen quickly into very young, tannic, closed, recently bottled wines to help them open up as quickly as possible.

How wine can give you wrinkles

Yep you read that right! Drinking wine from the wrong glass can give you wrinkles. We learnt it for ourselves the other night! After trying the wine from the right glass and then trying it from a different glass, most people screwed up their faces as the wine was bitter, sour and sometimes totally muted. Hence why repair sips came in…

Repair sips

Repair sips are what you do with the right wine glass for your wine after tasting it in not the right glass… haha! Try to avoid this, but if you do it, you too will be amazed at how much your wine glass can impact your experience of a wine.

Book that next Riedel Wine Glass Experience!

So if you get the chance to do a Riedel Wine Glass Experience, please do! Honestly you will walk away with so much newfound knowledge and the beauty with these events is that you also get to take home your tasting glasses with you!