The idea behind the Senses project comes from the experience gained over years in working along passionate wine makers. Every producer states that their own wine is unique, which is true, as every Terroir is different.

Aromas the heart of a wine

If every wine is unique, what’s the point in further discussing the varietal-specific glass? At Italesse, through the Senses project, we began to wonder what we could do to respect the unique characteristics of each wine and to appreciate their organoleptic properties. The answer came from the study of wine aromas and their structures in order to create extremely professional products that are able to enhance the organoleptic properties.

Designing

with aromas

The study of aromas is the starting point of the new Italesse project, an empirical tool to better and objectively understand which stem glasses shapes can enhance sensations such as elegance, freshness, softness, complexity, and structure, in order to combine emotions and technical excellence in the tasting experience. Therefore, Italesse Senses team has broken down the individual wines into aromas to test the glasses not only with wine but also, for example, with blackcurrant, raspberry, black pepper, etc. This allowed them to make essential changes and micro-changes to the structure of the glasses, by improving sensory perceptions, with extraordinary results as proved by some of the most renowned international enologists and sommeliers.

 

Italesse introduces the Sensory stem glass era

The study of aromas has allowed us to better understand the perception of the organoleptic sensations of wine through geometric shapes that must be controlled or respected in the process of creating a stem glass. In this way, for example, the intensity is perceived as a triangle with a stronger impact to the nose and palate. Therefore, while creating and designing the shape of a glass, a certain dimension of the rim, for example, determines how big the geometric shape inside the bowl is going to be. The narrower the rim is, the stronger the impact to the nose and palate will be. Complexity, on the other hand, is perceived as a sphere for its ability to expand and fill up spaces; a greater complexity will require a stem glass with a bowl shaped in a way that enhances this complexity. In the same way, we studied other characteristics such as the softness, perceived as a trapezoid, and the elegance, perceived as a more complex shape that enhances the equilibrium. This is how our sensory stem glasses were born. Stem glasses that should be chosen based on the organoleptic characteristics of every wine to enhance their uniqueness.

The study on the organoleptic sensations of wines has allowed us to understand which parts and shapes of the glasses best enhance them.

The rim’s width and the degree of inclination of the walls of the bowl influence the perception to the nose and palate, particularly on the intensity, elegance and freshness of the wine.

The bowl’s width and its shape influence the wine perception, particularly on its complexity, structure, softness and elegance.

The varietal stem glass becomes the sensory stem glass

 

The work carried out by the Italesse-Senses team, which brought us to the creation of sensory stem glasses and, from a technical point of view, to an important revolution against the outdated concept of the varietal stem glasses, which are unable to enhance the unique characteristics of every wine, has been corroborated by a commission of producers, enologists, and sommeliers. The goal of this commission was to test, with every stem glass, the suitability in enhancing the wine according to the principle of the Senses project, concentrating on the properties of the wines, beyond every convention. Thanks to the tests carried out by the commission, we created suitability indexes, which allow customers to choose the right glass based on the different wine varieties and their different organoleptic characteristics.

T-Made Lab

In the wake of this innovative path, Italesse took it to the next level by introducing the T-made project. The project poses as objective the realization of stemware that is tailored to the organoleptic sensations of specific wines.
In doing so, Italesse works directly with syndicates or independent winemakers to create glasses that become true technical tools, perfect for professional tastings and, at the same time, for an everyday use.
For this reason, T-made 70, created and studied on the characteristics of the wines of the Montalcino area, is the official stem glass of the Consorzio del vino Brunello di Montalcino.For the realization of these stem glasses, the company, along its team of enologists, sommeliers, and engineers, studies the different soils, the varieties, the work in the vineyards in addition to the fermentation and the aging techniques, while tasting various vintages. The results of these studies, along with the information and data collected during the tastings, will establish the best shape the glass should have to uniquely enhance a specific type of wine.

 

The importance of details

 

In designing professional glasses that respect the wine’s unique and organoleptic properties, we have paid attention not only to aroma test results, but also to the various sections that make-up the architecture of the glass. This is important not only for the design, stability, and balance of the glass, but also for the impact that it may have on the sensory perception of the wine. For example, the shape and size of the cup are important because they influence the glass’ ability to oxygenate the wine, while the rim conveys the organoleptic properties in the most balanced manner possible between nose and mouth.

High quality and lead-free
crystalline glass

The origin of glass is lost to the sands in the mists of time, but it is only at the end of the 1200s, in Venice, that processing it became a true art that required great manual skills and quality raw materials. Loyal to this tradition, in the realization of glasses, Italesse chooses only the best crystalline glass that guarantees optimal sparkle, transparency, and refraction so that the color and clarity of the wine can be fully appreciated. The glass used is strictly lead-free as to respect the environment and the health of all consumers.

Hand made or machine-made products

Today, Italesse creates its professional glasses in the Xtreme® (machine-made) version, for intensive daily use without sacrificing on quality and the emotional experience, and in the Excellence version, mouth-blown and handmade. The latter range offers a unique user experience thanks to the extreme lightness and versatility of the glass, which combines tasting with a tactile emotion linked to the perception of the wine as it oxygenates in the glass during the tasting.

Lasciatevi tentare dall’esperienza sensoriale
del progetto Senses

Let yourself be tempted by the sensory experience of the Senses project