I am learning quite a bit about wine these days. Most of my new found experiences consist of growing the grapes, and actually making the wine. With all of this, comes plenty of wine tasting opportunities. So, really, in addition to being an up and coming grape grower and wine maker, I should be learning a few wine tasting skills while I am at it.
My wine tasting pallet is good enough so far – I think so anyway – to tell me yay, nay, or give it some more time when it comes to tasting the working batches of wine. When it comes to the finished batches, there is more to be said about them, and this is where the real wine tasting comes in.
One thing you should have when tasting wine, a nice pair of wine glasses. It was a happy day for me when I got a notification from Valentina Paris asking if I would like to try out a pair of their beautiful, hand-painted wine glasses. I can taste all that wine I am making in style, I thought as I was reading the email and looking at the pictures. A great big yes was my answer, obviously.
First thing I thought was that these are glasses, and ordering anything fragile always makes me a little worried about it showing up in one piece. (I currently have a replacement LED light bulb on it’s way to me, and I really am expecting it to be broken by the time I get it.) Well, these glasses had me a little concerned, but that was nothing to worry about once I opened the outer box. The people at Valentina Paris really know their stuff when it comes to bubble wrapping, and shipping their products. I have never had so much bubble wrap surrounding a package like that before! My worries about the glasses being in one piece were instantly set aside, but what I saw when I opened the box was a little surprising still. I wan’t expecting these glasses to be so big. They were huge! Like you could probably fill them up with a whole bottle of wine, huge. I am not even exaggerating.
They are the biggest wine glasses that I have ever had, but you know what else they are? Beautiful! Not only are they now the prettiest that I have, but also they are the prettiest wine glasses that I have ever seen. The swirls and the designs, plus the colors make them so unique; I couldn’t wait to fill them up with wine.
It’s recommend that you hand wash these, and of course anyone would, plus they probably wouldn’t even fit in the dishwasher. So I got them washed and dried, then poured myself a little wine. What would seem like a little wine in these glasses though might actually be more than that. It was early so I kept my fill close to the top of the colored area. This is how you experienced wine tasters would probably fill your mega-sized glasses, and I realized afterwards that there is probably a reason for it to be this way.
These are the perfect size for tasting, swirling, and smelling your wine. The bigger wine glass makes the swirling part very easy, and it gives you the best possible drinking/tasting experience, thus making this size perfect for taking in all that the wine has to offer. Initially, I was a little put off by the size, but after getting to use them a couple of times, I kind of like how big they are. They were especially nice when we tried our newest cherry wine. We could swirl to our heart’s content and not a drop was spilled over. (The wine in these photos is not our cherry wine, by the way.)
As for the quality of the glass, it didn’t seem to me that they were cheaply made. I have had cheap glassware, and these were not like them at all.
Really, my favorite part about the glasses is how different they are from anything else that I have seen. With the colors and the individual designs, they are such a standout, I can’t help but think how classy of a center piece they would be on the table at any kind of a dinner party. As original as they are, I think they would make a wonderful gift as well – for the newbie, and the seasoned wine enthusiast alike.
Final thoughts: I love these glasses, but I don’t think they will be my main glass of choice for an everyday glass of wine. For special occasions or those nights we have something a little less ordinary on the dinner table, they will be the ones that I use. And even though for me they are more on the fancy side, they are going to still get plenty of use in my house. Thank you, Valentina Paris, for giving me the chance to try these lovely glasses out.
*I was sent these glasses at a very discounted rate for the purpose of an honest review. Opinions are all my own, and are 100% truthful.
Rejoice for the Day 