Right: Grassl & Sydonios (or Sy)

Last week whilst tasting some very nice Clos de Tart, winemaker Alessandro Noli asked me if I’d like to compare two different glasses. I was up for that – it also turned out to be a fascinating experience!!

Our tasting used the ‘traditional’ Sydonios Esthète glass as in multiple previous tastings here. But for a couple of wines, we compared our first impressions, made with that smaller Sy, with the larger bowled Grassl offering – and my takeaways were:

Wine #1 now with the Grassl
Of course, a larger nose now fills this larger bowl – but the effect is more airy and it’s also less easy to find the precisions. The wine on the palate seems more direct and fluid – the tannin softer/less evident – still great but it doesn’t really seem like the same wine – hardly!

Wine #2 now with the Grassl
A less concentrated but larger nose – here some spiciness not seen in the small glass. Supple, almost fluid again – a wine that melts more over the palate – I think more accessible too, and again partly due to more softness to the tannic structure. And, yes, a similar finishing shape, intensity and flavour to the smaller glass – except that the amplitude seems dialled down, it’s less intense but still ultra-long. Dumbed down? That would be unfair – but made a little easier!

If you have to make a choice – large-scale, important reds will seem more accessible as the texture of the tannin seems silkier – so maybe good for the table. Personally, I preferred the more visceral, full-volume performance of the smaller bowled Sydonios. The wine when served in this glass will be, for sure, stricter. But you know that I like strict 😉

Anyway, I want full volume when I’m tasting wines…