We Try The Wine Sipper

Wine glasses come in various shapes and sizes. In many cases this is done to compliment the wine style or provide the correct vessel for the wine to breathe appropriately. The stem is for holding the glass so you don’t heat the wine with your hand. The base is for holding it all upright on a table. Today, we’ve tested a completely different wine vessel. It breaks all the rules and it has a straw on the end. We compared drinking wine from the Wine Sipper to a typical wine glass.

The Wine Sipper is a tadpole looking glass which stands on a flat surface just fine. It has two tiny legs and a tail to keep it upright. The wine is held in a rather familiar area yet it is drunk from the “tail” or “straw”. The actual Wine Sipper is a hand blown glass, it’s quite a beautiful piece of glass crafted into this design. But why oh why did they do this?

We opened a fresh bottle of Stoneleigh Pinot Noir and poured some into the Wine Sipper and the usual wine glasses we have. Swirling the wine is rather difficult in a wine sipper, you risk it leaking from the spout and the wine doesn’t swirl properly with that spout being there. This means you can’t enjoy the aroma of the wine in the same way you would a typical glass. We then sucked a sip of the wine through the Wine Sipper and while we could taste the wine, it felt rather hollow. Something I don’t expect from a New Zealand Pinot Noir. After tasting the exact same wine in a traditional glass the flavour was completely different. The aroma of the wine oozes through the palate and brings 100% more depth to the Pinot Noir. If we continued drinking through the Wine Sipper we would have absolutely wasted the huge effort that comes to produce a bottle of wine. The wine makers in New Zealand would be wasting their time producing award winning Pinot Noir only for us to enjoy 50% of the wine experience.

It isn’t all bad for the Wine Sipper. It is possibly the most Instagram worthy wine glass on the planet, a selfie with the wine pipe will likely bring you more likes than the usual wine post. If you attend a fancy dress party as a professor then this glass would compliment the outfit.

But wait, what about Port? Well this is the only exception we see. Port wine is totally different and could work in such a glass. The reason being that by sipping the wine, you are sucking it from the bottom of the glass. This allows you to drink the Port that hasn’t been exposed to air for long and will be less oxidised. Slightly scientific but perhaps worth trying.

Overall, a fun stocking stuffer this Christmas, just don’t give it to a wine snob. They’ll hate you.

A set of two will cost you $32.95 from PurpleSpoilz