Pricey Decanter Makes Unique Statement

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Feb 11, 2009 10:00PM

We receive more press releases than we care to sort through. But one from Austrian stemware giant Riedel held our attention, mainly because of all the phallic or sexual entendres that popped in our head while reading.

Pictured is the Eve Decanter. Designed by Maximilian Riedel, the 11th generation of his family to design crystal stemware, this is the world's first "double decanter." What that means is that the design is such that it allows for a young wine to be decanted faster for drinking. In the accompanying demonstration video (you can view it here) Maximilian Riedel says — with the modesty for which his family is known — that the Eve is a decanter that "demands to be introduced." The press release reads that the Eve (named after the family matriarch) "emits a sound akin to the gurgle of the King Cobra as the wine makes the trip through the curvaceous swirl of glass." We'll take Maximilian Riedel at his word on that one.

Especially given the Eve's price tag: at a hefty $495 MSRP, we won't be holding this firmly in our hands for charging anytime soon. We contacted a couple of sommeliers after receiving the press release yesterday; one replied, "It certainly is a statement."