The Blind Tasting Glass was designed for wine drinkers who don’t want to form pre-conceived judgments prior to tasting, who want to taste fully blind.

Given that humans’ first sense in judging wine is sight (in fact, blind-folded tasters have not infrequently confused red and white wines), this glass removes all visual cues. Beyond colour, the Blind glass precludes immediately judging, for example, a pale-red Barolo as thin, or a deep purple pinot noir as rich. It is indeed the world’s first double-blind glass.

The glass uses Riedel’s most versatile bowl, the Zinfandel/Chianti and like other glasses in the Sommeliers collection is hand-made of full-lead crystal. The glass achieves its blackness through the addition of manganese oxide; a little of this metal turns glass purple, a little more turns it pitch black.