Sunday, January 25, 2009

Breathable Wine Glasses - Gimmic or Science?

When I was a Jack Cellars yesterday, Jack kindly gave me a sneak preview of the wines (from Walla Walla Vintners - they were quite delicious!) that that he was serving later at his Saturday wine tasting . He served the wine in breathable crystal wine glasses made by Eisch.

According to Eisch's website these glasses eliminate the need for decanting wine. They say that 2-4 minutes in the breathable glass yields the same results as wine that has been aerated and decanted for 1-2 hours. Eish claims that the crystal has been been processed such that oxygen penetrates the glass, but liquid does not. Part of me cries, "BS!" But then I think about Goretex, and concede that just maybe Eisch is on to something.

Since we were only drinking out of the breathable glasses, I do not have any idea whether the glasses made a difference.

Has anybody else tried these glasses? Does anybody think Eisch's claims have any merit?

1 comment:

Sig said...

There is absolutely no question that the claims made by Eisch are true. I have several of these glasses, and have tried this taste test with those of my friends who can tell the difference between a Cab and a Shiraz. I will pour the same wine into a decanter, the Eisch glass, and a Riedel stem of similar proportion. The breathable glasses absolutely make a serious improvement in the nose, taste, and finish of the wine after 4 - 5 minutes. After an hour or so the decanted wine catches up, but who cares after an hour or so?