A new glass, designed and tested to show Tokaji Aszú at its best, has been ceremonially unveiled today in Andrássy Kúria Hotel’s conference room in Tarcal. The approximately ninety invitees to the special event, mostly local winemakers, were treated to two Aszú wines, served in this elegant, uniquely shaped glass, selected from five finalist designs at a tasting by multiple local growers and wine professionals in August earlier this year.

The event was hosted by Tokaj expert and author of the award-winning Tokaj Guide Gergely Ripkawho has been the originator of, and driving force behind, the project. The glass is now available for purchase from manufacturer Halimba Crystal and, while few will be able to clink this with an Aszú on 10th December, International Aszú Day, the new glass will certainly adorn many more tables this coming Christmas in Hungary, and then hopefully become an essential part of the glassware range for bars and restaurants the world over.

A dedicated glass has been a long time coming for Aszú wines. Some may remember the stumpy, ugly little glass with a short thick stem that was supposed to be used for all Tokaji back in an era when Tokaji was almost only sweet, but was a design that all but ruined the experience of most Aszú wines. That was the obvious conclusion tasters at Hungary’s leading wine magazine Borigo also came to when they tasted Aszú wines from the former and nine Stöltzle glasses in 2011 to find the most suitable one for Aszú. Quite interestingly, the winning glass in that test was a 420 mL white wine glass and the runner-up was a 645 mL Bordeaux glass, which corroborates yours truly’s the experience of larger glasses tending to work pretty well for Aszú. None of the five glasses in the August tasting were so big, but it was still a sort of a surprise that one of the smallest ones of the five ended up to perform the best for most tasters. It should be noted, though, that the Borigo test had only used two, decade-old wines to test the ten glasses, the five prototypes for the new glass were tested with more than forty Aszús in August, which was indispensable given the great diversity of Tokaji sweet styles.

References: TokajToday