Peller Estates (BC)

What a difference a good wine glass makes! This wine was tasted first in mediocre hotel stemware. The notes then suggested that the tannins were too firm and that the wine needed time, barely scoring 84. A few weeks later, a second bottle was tasted, this time using remarkable new “breathable” stemware produced in Germany by Eisch Glaskultur. The Canadian distributor, B&M Marketing (Canada) Ltd. of Mississauga is gradually getting the glassware, which sells about $25 a stem, into retail channels across Canada.

Just how these lead-free crystal wine glasses are made is not detailed specifically in the manufacturer’s literature. The glasses have the ability to aerate the wine so effectively that wine in the bowl for just a few minutes smells and tastes as if it had been decanted and aerated for an hour or two.

This young Cabernet Sauvignon was the perfect wine to test the stemware. Two matching glasses had been provided, one conventional in manufacture and the other a “breathable” glass. Both Eisch glasses are excellent. The wine moved up a few points in the conventional glass but scored 88 points in the breathable glass. In the latter stem, it showed fine aromas of bell pepper, black cherry and cassis, following through with flavours of cherries and spice. The softened tannins gave the wine a satisfying, chewy texture. An impressive demonstration of how a fine glass improves a wine.

Reviewed August 2, 2007 by John Schreiner.