One last whack: Suckling said in a recent interview that Bruno Giacosa has treated him like a son. I find it a bit odd then that Suckling, who (altogether now, like a Ronco infomercial!) HAS A HOME IN TUSCANY, and has been in Italy for the better part of 30 years, does not speak Italian well enough to pronounce Il Maestro’s name correctly. In the video, he says " GEE-ah-koh-sah". The name is pronounced “jah-koh-za”, pretty much without halting for emphasis. Just to say. Does not seem like much to an English-speaker, I suppose, but it would so grate on the ears of the locals here that they would reflexively correct you. I know. It happened to me 15 years ago!
Can’t pronounce jah-koh-za. I’m a 50 on that, just because he showed up for 30 years.
Do you think the situation might have something to do with a sense of supremacy or hubris or some other such endearing quality that so many critics seem to harbor? Or is it just garden-variety density?
Well, I really enjoyed the parts that showed the glasses being made. However they aren’t really my style. To me they look like something my parents or grandparents would have enjoyed had they been wine drinkers.
As for the rest of the commercial, I mean it is what it is. I just can’t take it seriously.
If they’d cut out 6 minutes of the self-aggrandizing, that would have been a good video that may have left me with the impression of Lalique’s craftsmanship and interesting glasses, name aside. Instead, I walk away thinking Suckling is a tw*t.
One of the things I love about wine and art, ultimately beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I love the glasses and are really digging the decanter - while above my pay grade, my be next luxury purchase. I have been slowly upgrading my decanters from a collection of restaurant level Riedel to my current favorite William Yeowards (with that being said when we have a ton of bottles that need to be decanted the old Liter glass milk bottles come out).
I like decanters that do not take up too much table room, and have a good heft to them. Also, I like them to be able to pour out and emptied easily. Not a fan of super wide based decanters that need to be held totally upside down to empty. They are also a pain to clean.
I actually dig the glasses as well. I could see investing in a few of the Burg’s as that seems to be the wife and my go to glass 4 out of 5 nights.
Ah, Jim, you are onto something here. L. A. boy, home in Tuscany, mock British affectations (his little girl being a semi-famous British child singer, no?) to make the rubes back in America believe that he is truly a cultured man of the world instead of just a dude! Bordeaux! Italy! That Mexican wine video!
I swear I thought this was a parody. When I read the verbiage and it referred to Mr. Suckling in the third person, I was certain. But after watching the video, I don’t know. Is it possible to parody yourself while the parody is yourself? Where’s Hack with Chuang -Tzu when we need him?
Anyway, it was interesting to note that there was DEMAND for these glasses?
Says so right on the website and in the video.
“The response was overwhelming. But people wanted more glasses.”
From whence such demand?
The glasses look just fine but what’s the dif between those and any number of other glasses one can buy? There are plenty of good glasses out and Riedel has the lock on the BS factor when it comes to selling wine glasses.
Good to see that he broke out some of the patented Suckling pronunciation. Who else pronounces “Bordeaux” almost like “boredom”?
Well,I turned on the video.
The piano was nice,
The wine pouring into the glass was nice,rosy hue…nice.
Then I heard his voice and it became diminished,almost tawdry.
I choked it down and really enjoyed the fabrication,the craftsmen paying attention…
And then
He came back and started talking again and speaking about how “we created this glasswork…”
“Lalique had the history,the knowhow,the design…and we worked together with my background,my knowledge,my passion…”
The 100 point Suckling line…
How pathetic…