World-famous wine critic Jancis Robinson has recently launched her very own line of wine glassware worldwide. Ginsberg+Chan is honoured to be the first merchant in Hong Kong to sell her glass and decanters for serious wine lovers.
The new collection is just one wine glass, together with two beautiful decanters (one for young and one for old wine). The old-wine decanter doubles as a luxurious flask for water for those who like everything to match.
Jancis Robinson’s new glassware collection is a collaboration effort with British designer Richard Brendon; who is known for exquisite craftsmanship, so much so he is part of the Walpole initiative to promote British luxury goods abroad. Having made a name for himself with top-quality bone china, based on classic designs, and whisky glasses, he reached out to Jancis on a collaboration to create this collection.
The Wine Glass (Set of Two: HKD700)
Technical features:
- All glasses are individually mouth-blown by skilful, experienced artisans; gossamer-thin glass with a particularly thin rim to put the taster in as close communication with the liquid as possible.
- A generous bowl going in towards the rim that captures the all-important aroma and allows energetic swirling to encourage it with no danger of losing any wine over the rim, but is not so wide as to make storage difficult, or measures of wine look mean
- An opening at the top that is big enough for the big-nosed but not so big that spillage would be a problem
- A capacity that yields maximum surface area with an average pour of about 125 ml
Practical features:
- Tall stem that allows even the big-handed to swirl comfortably without affecting the temperature of the wine
- Dishwasher-friendly (this is almost Jancis’s personal number one requirement)
Young Wine Decanter (HKD850)
Jancis also wanted to offer decanters as part of the range, recognising that the sort of decanter suitable for young wine is very different from what is needed for old wine.
This decanter is the thoroughly satisfying (to eye, palate and arm) young-wine decanter. It echoes the shape of the wine glass while maximising the surface area of the wine and providing an ideal way of aerating the wine: seizing the neck and swirling it around. This works just as well as a magnum decanter too.
Old Wine Decanter (HKD950)
For old wines, decanting is needed just to separate the mature wine from its sediment and then, in many cases, one wants to minimise contact with air, so the team has designed a much narrower, less generous decanter, again echoing the shape of the wine glass, with a lovely (optional) stopper depending on how fragile you feel the wine is.
Without the stopper, this works beautifully as a water carafe.