Cru is also the best beer glass on the planet.
I use the Cru 90% of the time. The warden loves the librate
Chris is absolutely a pleasure to deal with. And I love my Grassl stems, my favorite being the Cru. The Liberte is next and I use the 1855 and Mineralite less frequently but they’re all such nice glasses. And Chris is the master of customer service. I’ve pretty much stopped using the Gabriel and Zalto stems except sometimes I will use the Zalto Burgundy because it is so huge and I want to try something with that. But nearly all the time it is Grassl. So light and elegant.
I own some Liberte glasses and gifted some more to my daughter and her (now) husband. They broke two and I replaced them. It would never occur to me to hold the distributor responsible for my or my daughter’s carelessness. YMMV.
Mainly drink nebbiolo, cabernet franc (Loire), pinot noir, and occasionally grenache (southern Rhone), so is Cru the way to go? For whites, don’t drink very often, but when we do, it’s mostly vermentino or any other Italian grape. Which glass is best for this? And lastly, which glass is best for a Montrachet?
Honestly, we drink quite a bit of grower champagnes and Megan and I both really like the Mineralité followed closely by the Liberté.
With richer vintages and wines I would lean more to the Liberté.
Funny enough, the only Zalto I saved was the white wine glass and I use it strictly for champagne.
For Nebbiolo, Cab Franc, and PN, you should try both Cru and Liberté. My feeling is the Cru deepens aromatics with reds and softens acidity, while drawing out savory notes. The Liberté focuses aromatics, and delivers a seamless expression of the wine, and typically presents a juicier more acid driven finish.
For your lighter whites, Mineralité would be great. For Montrachet, speculatively speaking I would guess Liberté for younger wines from that vineyard and Cru for more aged versions. Would probably depend upon producer a little bit too…
Thanks Marcus.
Ok, Brandon – I took on here for the team (or at least for you). 
I opened a 2017 Elephant Seven Cosmic Reflection (69% mourverdre, 31% syrah)
2012 Bonny Doon Syrah X Block Bien Nacido (100% syrah I think; wish i left this for a few more years!)
I tried both in two Grassl glasses: Liberte and Cru; and the Riedel Sommelier Syrah.
For those of you not familiar with these wines, the Elephant Seven is a bit more new world, but with some really nice savory flavors. The Bonny Doon is much earthier – very savory. I unfortunately did not have an old world rhone available to test – this was the closest I could get given what was in the house.
Elephant Seven/Liberte. The nose immediately said Gamay to me (and here Brandon, we may be in sync). This was Gamay in a way that I (and I suspect you) do not like – very light and fruity. Not like the few Beaujolais I have had that, so far for me, are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The Cru and Riedel early on pretty much tied on the Elephant Seven. I might give an edge at first to the Riedel. Though now, as I type this, I have a glass of the Elephant Seven in the Cru and the Bonny Doon in the Riedel (more on that in a moment). Both of these glasses are excellent for this wine. With food (pasta with a mushroom sauce – no tomato or cream), the Cru edged out the Riedel. It was more precise and focused. The Riedel with food almost became a bit acidic and, in a weird way, frizzante.
For the Bonny Doon the Riedel was, and continued to be, the favorite. It had a far more complex nose and flavors on the palate. The Cru emphasized fruit a bit more over savory notes. So this may depend on what you like and what flavors you want to emphasize. Both were excellent.
The Liberte with the Bonny Doon – almost no nose to speak of (though with time this started to change, but still quite limited). It was more savory on the palate than the other two, but verged on being a bit astringent and bitter.
As the evening progressed, the Liberte was better with the Elephant Seven than the Bonny Doon.
But I would say, at least for my taste, the Liberte was the least favorite, and noticeably so. I think I prefer the Cru for the Elephant Seven and the Riedel for the Bonny Doon, but as you can tell from above these are both excellent glasses for each of these wines.
Separate from the glasses, the Elephant Seven is lovely to drink now. The Bonny Doon – I want to wait at least 3 years more (and perhaps 5) for my last remaining bottle.
Chris, my wife broke a Cru but I didn’t bug you because no glass could have survived that fall from the bar!
We love those and the Liberte; we’ll add some for our FL place.
I have 8 1855, 8 Cru, and 12 tasting glasses and love them so much that I fear I’m drinking more than I should. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Should I be on the market for more white wine glasses I’d not hesitate to try a few Liberte and Mineralite. I’m certainly not looking elsewhere for glasses.
1855 is definitely my preferred glass for richer reds.
Cru for lighter reds (PN, light Grenache, traditional Italian) and chard.
Tasting glasses for when we have guests who don’t how to handle a glasses. Used 1855 once and two guests cracked their glasses as they were toasting! Of course, Chris generously replaced them. 
The tasting glass is also good for some lighter whites that would drown in a bigger glass. Also an excellent glass for Cognac and Armagnac. Focuses the brandy and minimizes alcohol unlike wider and larger glasses.
Since getting these glasses the only old glasses I still use are the GGG which I love for GV and other medium bodied whites. Never use GGG for reds anymore. Gave all my other glasses to a friend so that we’d have something decent in his new digs.
Matt,
Those would have been the Riedel Oregon Pinot Noir glass. Also a good glass, but the Grassl rolled over it in our tastings.
Chris, looking at this thread before I place a BD order, and saw the posts about Champagne. If you’re still thinking about this, Vilmart uses a glass in their tasting room that I think is perfect (though maybe a bit small for some). I’d love to be able to buy a similar glass. Cheers!
Chris- ignorant question (for two reasons as I just purchased another 24 glasses) but is the benefit of buying the tasting glasses cost, more durable, or other? Do I need those?
I need a new decanter in the rotation. My wife just broke one last week, walked into the mudroom rocking her tennis bag like a bull in a china shop, and boom, shattered a decanter.
Bring on BD!
PS. I use, and am damn happy with, the 1855 for most of my reds, Bordeaux, Chinon, Rhones, Zin and Beaujolais.
Does anyone have feedback on the Grassl tasting glasses as good glass for well everyday reds? Thinking that as a good cheaper alternative to Gabriel Glas.
Joshua, there are a few threads on this - here’s the backstory on that tasting/restaurant series.
When Alex and I were at EP in Bordeaux in spring of 2019, he was discussing the amount of waste we were seeing Cht Palmer pour out (which isn’t aytpical of most chateau) and due to the fact Palmer had a tough 2018 being biodynamic, he asked them why they didn’t have a glass that showed their wines better with smaller pours. Their answerr was simple “no one has ever asked us that”…
The restaurant series stem is designed to give you maximum surface area at 1.5 ounces and be capable of handling US pours to 4.5/5.0 ounces.
Keep this in mind with our glasses and my policies. “No blood”. You buy them, don’t like them, call me. I’ll buy them back and send a label.
Damn, bro. That’s some incredible language and delivery right there. I might buy some tasting glasses just because of this post.
Thanks Chris. I attempted a search but I must’ve not included the correct modifiers to my search terms.
Will get an order in. Going to buy some 1855 as well.
I PM’d Chris, but imagine he’s swamped right now, so does anyone have any thoughts on whether I should buy the Mineralite or the Liberte for general white wine usage? I want to try two different Grassl glasses (never tried them before) and know that I want the Cru, as we drink a lot of Piedmont and Burgundy. But I’m wondering which of the white glasses might be best. We drink a lot of Champagne, Riesling, Chablis, Loire, Jura, Rosé and other whites from Alto Adige, Friuili, etc.
Liberte