What’s the perfect glass for serving English sparkling wine?

Wine glass manufacturer Riedel is confident it has created the perfect glassware for serving English sparkling wine, having conducted research with 25 UK producers across the Hampshire, Kent, and Sussex regions.

Riedel has announced that a new glass, created specifically for English sparkling wines, is currently in development, following a series of tasting workshops with leading producers in early 2023.

Maximilian Riedel, the brand’s 11th generation CEO, and the Riedel UK team visited wineries in January to conduct workshops for the wine glass’s development with 25 wine producers from the Hampshire, Kent, and Sussex regions.

Simon Thorpe MW, CEO at WineGB, the organisation which represents the UK wine industry, called the creation of a bespoke English sparkling wine glass “a real marker of the development of the industry and its growing reputation both on the domestic and international marketplace”.

Tastings were hosted by Exton Park in Hampshire, Squerryes Estate in Kent and Ridgeview Wine Estate in Sussex where a panel of winemakers and expert tasters, led by Maximilian Riedel, tasted from a shortlist of twelve different Riedel glasses, with a large number of different English Sparkling Wines from each region.

All wines were tasted blind. The process was undertaken in a number of stages where glasses which failed to show the best expression of the wines were eliminated. Panellists then focused on the glasses which allowed the best elements of the wines to be expressed both on the palate and on the nose.

Each workshop was conducted independently. A unanimous decision was reached across all three panels, with the same glass chosen at each session.

And the winner? The Riesling shape in the recently launched Riedel Veloce range.

Maximilian Riedel said of the judges’ decision: “It is especially pleasing and forward thinking that, in selecting a Riedel Veloce glass, the panel recognised a glass which is brand new, state of the art glassmaking technology, where we are able to produce, by machine, a wine glass which is as fine and as light and as balanced as a hand-made glass and, as such, world leading in its field.”

The glass will now undergo a series of adaptations to create the Riedel English sparking wine glass. Riedel is set to add a nucleation point to the glass in order to improve the way in which the glass manages the mousse. The text ‘English Sparkling Wine’ will also be added to the base.

The glass is due to be launched to market in the coming months.