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Riedel Superleggero is a ‘game-changer’ for the on-trade
Austrian glass maker Riedel’s latest technological feat, Riedel Superleggero, will be a huge boost for fine-dining restaurants around the world.
it’s been 50 years since Riedel pioneered its ‘shape concept’, developed by Professor Claus J. Riedel in 1973. The concept, the first of its kind, led to the development of Riedel Sommeliers, which was oriented around the philosophy of “different shapes for different grapes”.
In 2015, Maximilian J. Riedel presented the Riedel Superleggero series, a further development of the Sommeliers series pioneered by his grandfather.
In the latest development by the Austrian glass company, last year Riedel went a step further and introduced a machine-made version of its hand-made classic – Sommeliers Superleggero – at its factory in Weiden, Germany.
This means that the iconic Bordeaux and Burgundy Grand Cru shapes are now also available at much less than half the price of their hand-made counterparts, thus opening up the consumer and Horeca market further than ever before. The new bases are up to 106mm in diameter, a new technical record, and the glasses in the Superleggero series are available in eight sizes.
New glass technology has revolutionised fine-dining establishments around the world, looking to lure back patrons with memorable experiences.
“It has always been challenging for fine dining restaurants – despite being big advocates of grape varietal glasses as a way to help them boost sales of wine – to justify the cost of using hand-made stemware,” says Suresh Kanji, general manager of Town House, which represents Riedel in the Hong Kong market.
But given the huge strides in Riedel’s machine-manufacturing capabilities, new ranges like Superleggero are now enabling restaurants to use stemware that looks and feels handmade, but at machine-made price points.
“This has been nothing short of a game-changer for establishments looking to offer a more premium experience to their guests,” Kanji says. “It hasn’t taken long for our key customers in Hong Kong and Macau to switch to these ‘advanced machine-made’ ranges, and we expect this trend to continue to grow in the years ahead.”
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