Elevating Everyday Wine with Hand-Blown Glasvin Wine Glasses with Founder David Kong

Ep 43

Does a beautiful hand-blown wine glass make a difference when it comes to drinking wine?

Are different glasses good for different kinds of wine? 

Or is it just all a marketing strategy?

Today, I have David Kong, founder of Glasvin Stemware, with me. David is changing the game for wine and cocktail lovers everywhere! And he is giving us all the details on those questions. 

David dives into how a wine glass can or can not impact a wine. He’s sharing what he thinks are marketing tactics when it comes to glassware and what actually matters.

David also dives into his direct to consumer business model that allows him to offer affordable wine glasses as well as his mission to responsibly source his products and why that is so important to him and his company. 

I know after listening to this episode that you will want one of those beautiful hand-blown wine glasses for your collection so head to https://glas.vin/ and use code CORKFIZZ for 10% off your order!

This episode of the Cork and Fizz podcast is sponsored by Vochill wine chiller - save 15% off your next order with code CORKANDFIZZ and the Cork Crew Virtual Wine Club - grab your free class pass at www.corkandfizz.com/freeclasspass

Episode Highlights:

• Who is David Kong, founder of Glasvin wine glasses

• Making luxury glassware accessible for everyday use at a lower price point

• Wine selection tips on finding affordable yet quality driven wines

• Importance of choosing wines based on quality rather than branding or marketing

• Versatility of the universal wine glass

• Glasvin’s commitment to responsibly sourcing glassware

• Glasvin’s direct-to-consumer business model for lower prices and better service

• Does the shape and size of a wine glass impact the aroma and taste of wine

Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine, but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Haley Bullman and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business, Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Today, I have something a little different for you, and I'm super excited. I am going to introduce you to David Kong, the founder of Glassfin. Glassvin is a young and vibrant company that is changing the glassware industry. They're offering hand blown glassware at a more accessible price. So, essentially, these, like, high end Michelin star style glasses, but at a price that makes sense for you to use at home and for small businesses to use in their restaurants and in their wine bars. And they're doing this by cutting out the middleman between the artist and you. So the founder, David, he has been so successful with this business with Glassfin that over 2 dozen US Michelin star restaurants now use Glassfin as their go to stemware. They want to encourage that you at home and anybody who wants to use really nice glasses that you can use high quality glassware on an everyday basis. Now before we get into the interview, I wanna do a quick reminder. If you are not on my mailing list yet, I would love for you to join. When you do, you will get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips and recs, special offers, special learnings, a little bit of everything, and so much more. And, of course, if you wanna come taste with me, come join my virtual tasting club, the court crew. It is your opportunity to taste wine directly with me from the comfort of your own home. We get together twice a month. We try new wines. We learn from others in the wine world, and you get to ask them direct questions. So if you're ever listening to one of these interviews and you're like, Haley, I need you to ask this question, and I just I don't hear you through the through the through the earbuds, you need to come join the court crew so you can be asking these small yeas and wine authors and glassware companies all of your questions. If you wanna give it a try without any commitment, you're in luck. Right now, I'm offering a free class pass to anybody who wants to come try out the court crew. A class pass is basically like, I think of it like the punch cards a little bit, but it's like fully punched out and you're just getting a free seat in a court crew tasting. And so you'll get to pick whichever event you want to join. There's no strings attached. I'm not asking for your credit card. I don't need you to sign up for a membership. You will be my guest. All I need is your email. So head to corkandfizz.com/freeclasspass to get your class pass. Now without further ado, let's get into the interview. Thanks for joining me for this. I'm really excited to to learn more about glassware. I feel like I've had a lot of, you know, winemakers on the on the show already and some some sommelier, but you're my first person that knows all about the glassware. So excited to learn about it. Yeah. There aren't there aren't too many of us out there. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely a little harder to find. So do you wanna kinda start off by just giving a little bit just tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do? Sure. My name is David Kong, and I'm the founder of Glassfin. Glassfin is probably like the first and only direct to consumer wine glass business. We specialize in hand blown wine glasses. It's a category of wine glasses that's becoming more and more popular all around the world. Used to be very, very expensive to own one of these or to have a open a restaurant that uses hand blown wine glasses, but they're they're much nicer than the the standard wine glasses. But but very few people could afford it, but they made the drinking experience, you know, much, much better. Once you use one of these really nice glasses, it was really hard to go back to what you were using before. At least that was my experience. So what I did in 2019 when I started the company and we started selling in 2020 was basically try to get the price of these hand blown wine glasses down. And so right now, roughly, like, the market is probably, like, $80 a glass for my competitors, and we're priced more like $40 a glass. And we also have developed a new line of glasses that's a little bit thicker and a little bit more durable for people who want that kind of trade off. And those are glasses that we we price at$24 a glass. So we're really bringing down, like, the average price for a, a hand blown wine glass. And we've had a lot of market success, especially here in the US, especially in New York City, for example, where a lot of people have restaurants. A lot of restaurants and consumers have found out about us and have started using our glasses. Very cool. I love it. I think it's it's such a good point too because, yeah, when you like, I have, like, the glasses you know, you have your glasses that you're like, okay. I have these at home because I know they're gonna break or something like that. But then you go to a restaurant and you have, like, those, like, nice thin wine glasses. And I'm very curious. A lot of this I wanna talk about kind of, like, you know, how, you know, the glass does affect the the wine. But it is something that when you just experience it, you're like, damn. That's good. And it's very cool that you're kinda trying to create this almost luxury experience that you can enjoy at home and just, you know, just get to do that on a casual Tuesday night because you wanted to pour, you know, a good wine into some nice glassware and make it feel a little extra special. Yeah, exactly. So the goal is this would be to let people not feel like this is something that's, like, out of their reach that they can only use on special occasions and let them be able to use it basically every night. Like we really encourage people to use hand blown wine glasses whenever they drink wine, no matter the okay. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. So you kinda talked about a little bit of kinda what sparked the idea of creating Glassman, but I'm curious on, like, maybe starting even before that, what sparked your interest in wine? I'm guessing that started first, then there was an interest in glassware. So where did that interest in wine come from? Exactly. So I started drinking wine, like, right out of college. It was because I really liked food and restaurants, and so I was I was doing a lot of, like, dining out and trying new restaurants as a bit of foodie. And the wine list was always a very daunting part of the dining experience, but I was doing it so much that I couldn't just, you know, keep on being daunted by it. I needed to figure it out. So it was almost like by need that I had to figure out. There were some there's some stories I can go through where, you know, I ordered just, like, totally the wrong wine and, you know, I just felt stupid. And so I really tried to figure it out. And I'm pretty like, I like I like math and stats and stuff like that. So I didn't want to just, like, buy wines based on random factors like what the label look like or what the which is how most people pick wine, the biggest price and what the label looks like, and maybe like some brand name recognition. I actually wanted to know that if I was picking a wine, that wine actually is a good wine and provably a good wine. And so one thing that got me really interested in wine beyond just, you know, like a pastime is the Psalm documentary where the people were taking that exam. And I remember just watching that trailer, and I think the key line in that trailer was, like, some people when they're told, like, you know, how hard this task is of being able to blind a wine properly, some people, you know, don't like going down that route at all, and other people see that and are totally immersed in it and feel challenged by it. And I was definitely in that latter camp. I heard that, well, like, you can actually do that and figure out what the wine is from just the taste of it. That was the like, that was the initial click where I was like, okay. This isn't just you know, because the the the mass media seem to believe they love making fun of wine snobs or whatever. You know? Right. The whole, like, oh, sure. Like, let's lick a rock. Like, that's totally real. I've definitely heard plenty of times. Yeah. So I think the the mass perception of wine is that it's just all fake and, like, it's all branding. And and, unfortunately, like, a lot of a lot of it is that, but, I mean, there's just too many, like, stats of, like, people actually be able to tell what wine it is that there's obviously, like, some real like, it's it's it's a much more scientific field than other kind of, like, artistic fields. Right? Like like visual art or very other, like, fields like this. You can actually, like, get a group of people together and, like, agree that something is, like, good. Sure. Very hard to do that in in most arts. So I I I feel that wine is a good mix of, like, art and science. I really like that. Oh, yeah. I couldn't agree more. I think it's very funny that you talk about, like, really being into math and stats. Because, like, in school, I was definitely math was my thing. Like, that was, like, I preferred that stay away from the literary English. Why did the author write that? I was like, I don't care. Like give me a math problem. It's straightforward. It makes sense. Right? And the science part of it too. And I think it's very interesting. So I always thought of wine as like the opposite of that, but I see now, like, as you're talking about it, like there is a lot to it that, like, again, there is that science of it, and, like, you can study and start to learn these things about wine. And like you said, it's not just a parlor trick when people can blind taste. It's because they've studied and they've you know, there are these things that they can notice in the wine that others you know, that that just tells them something about it, and then that's why they can end up being able to tell you where the wine's from, you know, what grape variety it is. And then, of course, the the endless studying to figure out, like, what year it is. So cool. So did you I'm curious. So that if that's what sparked your interest, did you ever go down that route to become a sommelier or take those exams? So the issue is well, there's there's the w set, which that would have been probably what I would have gone down because I I'm not a sommelier. But I think that one is not as, interesting as maybe, like, the the CMS or MS. And, like, those the those you you need to be a sommelier, I think, to to get it. And I was definitely not a sommelier. I wasn't interested in being a sommelier. So I I'm not I've never actually gone down this route. Sure. Oh, no. I was just curious. And you can very much be interested in wine and love it without ever having, you know, that certification after your name or the the certificate. Right? And, yeah, the the definitely, the the CMS is definitely something where, like, you need to be surrounded by wine all day, every day, for the most part, to to be successful than that. When I was doing the blind tasting myself, I was using the CMS, like, testable grape varietals. That was, like, my first that's how I first started learning wine was I just got the the grid of the whites and reds that were testable, and I I just tried to have each one of them and try to figure out what each one of them was. So I've kind of followed the CMS process. I just I I'm I'm just I've never paid them money too. Right. Right. It's it's the self taught. It's like the YouTube era of, like, I could teach myself at home. I can do this. Okay. So you have the interest in wine, and then you kinda start you talked a little bit about what prompted the idea of creating the glassware company. But I'm curious, like, can you talk a little bit more about, like, what that process was like? Like, how does one go from, here's an idea. I wanna be able to get hand blown glasses to people at a lower price to creating Glassfin. Yeah. So I knew it was possible. And the reason why I knew it was possible is because if you look at prices of hand blown glasses in different countries, there's a lot of variation. And the US is not surprisingly the most expensive region. And so if you're able to offer a glass at this price in this country, and the shipping from a to b is, you know, maybe, like, $2 a glass maximum or whatever, it's reasonable to assume then that you should be able to offer it at around the same price in the US. So I knew from first principles that I didn't I didn't even need to do any work to realize that it's definitely possible. Now I just need to figure out how to do it. So my first instinct was, okay, well, why don't we just contact these suppliers, and maybe we have maybe like, there's definitely some other company in, somewhere that's making glasses, and they don't sell much in the US. And I was like, well, why don't I just import that glass? And, you know, the like, there's some that exist. I'd like, I can list off some names of, like, glasses that that exist in other places in the world but don't exist in the US. That was the original idea. That was my idea maybe at, like, 8 AM in the morning. And then by, like, you know, 10 AM, after 2 hours of, like, kinda like googling or whatever, I was like, well, that's a dumb idea. I don't wanna, like, I don't wanna be a a representative of someone else's brand. I wanna actually own the brand. And, you know, when you're creating business, like, what where's the value? It's not in it's not in the guy that's, like, importing the glass. It's in the it's in the brand that everyone now trusts and whatnot. So 2 hours later, I was like, scrap that. I'm just gonna make my own brand of glasses. And then off off we went to, like, try to find, people that can make, these glasses for us. And, that's what took that's what took all of 2019. And then designing the glasses, obviously. And then and then early 2020, we sold our first glass. Wow. That's it's wild. I mean, even when you say, like, it took a whole year, but it's like it only took a year to get from, like, idea to then selling the first glass, which is really cool. I wanna dive into a little bit. You know, you talked about designing the glasses. So I'm very curious on, like, how much did you learn or, like, what do you know about, like, what makes good glassware matter when drinking wine? And I'm gonna tag onto this as well. I'm curious your thoughts on, like, a lot of glassware companies sell, like, varietal specific glasses. You know, you see, like, a Chardonnay glass, a Riesling glass. And I'll be honest, I don't really believe you need a separate glass for each varietal. But you are the expert, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this and kinda what makes the difference in the glass. Yeah. To take it to its extreme, there's, like, 1500 varietals, or more, and, like, Italy itself has, like, 50 varieties I've never heard of. And then what about blends? Like, do we need another glass for, like, a 70 30 cab Merlot blend versus a 30 70? You know? So I think Virospecific is obviously a marketing strategy that some companies have used. And, like, I think they've obviously taken that, like, to an extreme. I do personally believe that different glasses are good for different kinds of wine, and it's not even necessarily split by varietal. But it is kind of split by varietal, but it's not, like, definitely split by varietal. Like and, obviously, like, the same varietal can be made in in in different styles. So, you know, it's very hard to just say, like, this is a Chardonnay glass when Chardonnay is made differently in a lot of different places. Roughly, like, I think what really matters with wine glasses is basically, like, the size of the wine glass. Some wines just do better in bigger glasses. Some wines do better in smaller glasses. And and when I say better, it's not even necessarily that it's always better or it's better for everyone. It's it's also like, if you like, you know, more precise wines, then maybe you prefer to have, like, an oaky Chardonnay in, like, a smaller glass because then it'll make the bigger wine taste smaller. Right? So I think there's a lot of, like, personal preference. I have what I like to drink out of, but that's not necessarily what my customers wanna drink out or what restaurants wanna drink out of. My main goal is to try to give my customers what they want. That's, like, really my goal. And if my customers say, like, hey. We we would like to have, like, this size of a glass, then I'm gonna I'm gonna make make that for them. And, you know, if I have a few different size of glasses, then one of those will will work for them. Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned a couple things. I I wanted to get into a little bit about so you mentioned the size of the glass makes a difference, and you kinda got into, like, what that does. Can you dive a little deeper into, like so you talked about, like, a smaller glass, like, the you were talking kinda like precision. It makes the wine smaller versus, like, a larger glass. Can you dive into, like, what that means a little bit? Yeah. So, typically, like, the more aromatic a wine is or the, more, like, air a wine for example, like, nebulos are very, very aromatic, and they also typically especially because people tend to drink wines too young, nebulo really benefits from a lot of oxygen. And so the more surface area is exposed to air, typically, the better for a nebbiolo. So so that's why, like, I think typically people like to drink nebbiolo out of as big of a glass as, possible. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have something like a Riesling or a Shannon or something that's, like, very precise and very high acidity. And for those, like a smaller glass, people think brings out the, the acidity more. So that's, like, the the the widest that's kind of kind of the range of, possibilities. Yeah. Yeah. So I I remember, like, I did a on a trip last year, we had a tasting, and he brought out 2 different sized glasses, and he served the same riesling out of both. And one was kind of like that bigger glass, and one was the smaller one. And I remember him talking about, like, yeah, one of them was meant to, like, open it up, and that was likely the larger glass. It's sounding like I'm like, I remember this, but I'm trying to remember some details. So the larger one is, you know, using that larger glass is a good idea when you want more aroma. You want the wine to kind of just, like you wanna get as much as you can out of the wine versus, like, the smaller one is if you want something to kind of, like if it's not as aromatic, you want to almost I'm trying to, like, laser focus that, you know, those few things that are you know, that one thing that's really great about it and laser focus that into Yeah. What you take. Does that is that accurate? I mean, that's that yeah. Like, the the more surface area there is and the more, like because, basically, there's more fumes effectively. Like, the alcohol, the the smells are coming out and then being, compressed as it goes up the glass. So people kind of use sometimes use the term like linear. So, like, when we're blind tasting wines, like, a lot of times especially, like, like, sometimes we say, like, new old wines are very linear because it's like there's really one thing that you're you're trying to get out of this wine, and, you know, that could be maybe it's like the oak or maybe it's the limestone or it's something it's just like one or it's it's like some fruit. Right? Like, most times, it's like some fruit. Like, okay. I'm just trying to get this really nice cherry smell out of this thing. That's, like, what defines that wine. And so those, like, you could argue, like, don't need as much aeration. Whereas like otherwise, like maybe some like older world wines, you know, they have a lot of different things happening or maybe it's a bit more aged of a wine and there's more like tertiary kind of different components to that smell that you kind of want to open up. And so maybe you want a little bigger glass for that. Yeah. Cool. Okay. I wanna dive into your glasses in particular. I just talk about a few of them just to kind of as people are looking and if they wanna give these glasses a try, kinda give them, an idea of what to to look for. So let's start with the universal. Obviously, by the sound of it, it sounds like this is kind of like the one that you recommend for kind of any it's a universal glass for any wine. So tell us about it, and what makes it what makes it perfect for any kind of wine? So it's a very versatile glass. It's it's definitely our best seller. Like, we kind of recommend if if you don't know what to get, then just get the universal. Like, you're not gonna be unhappy about it. If you later decide that you wanna get into some of the other glasses, like, you can always add on to it, but the universal, you'll still keep on using. No one's gonna be offended if you give them a universal glass. Let's put it that way. Like, I don't know if you ever been to a restaurant and you, like, order, like, some wine that's, like, you know, a little bit bigger or, like, a red wine maybe, like, something that that you would think should be in a slightly bigger glass, and they, like, like, bring a flute or something. They're like, well, that's not gonna be good in that. Oh, yeah. I could do one worse than that. I've had one come out in, like, a just a regular, highball glass, and it was a nice stretch tattoo. And I was like, y'all run out of wine glasses. You should, you should connect them with me. Yeah. I think that's good. Buy some wine glasses. But the point of the universal is, like, even if they put, like, a nebbiolo in a universal glass, like, the vast majority of humans will not be offended to receive that glass. So the universal glass is not actually a white wine glass. Some people call it a white wine glass because, you know, they're like, well, if the bigger one's a red wine glass, then the smaller one must be a white wine glass. And that's really not the case. If you look at the measurements of our universe, so it's actually pretty close to, like, what a lot of Bordeaux glasses are. So it's actually, like, shape wise, it's pretty similar to, like, a Bordeaux or, like, a Syrah glass. But also because it's so it's like a thin glass. It just looks dainty. You know? I think people just think it's thinner, like, it's it's skinnier than, like, the actual measurements indicate. So, yeah, if you're, like, opening a wine bar and you just only want one glass, which a lot of people are going that way, is customers are fine with that. If you're not 3 Michelin Stars, I think, like, 2 or less fewer Michelin Stars, customers are fine with just having one glass. And it's obviously way easier from a administrative perspective to have one glass. And the other nice thing is we try to make sure they fit in the 5 by 5 racks. They're a bit of a tight fit. It kind of fits in the traditional racks and that they're easy to store, and you can run 25 of them in the dishwasher at the same time. So this is more for the commercial for the commercial Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Individuals. It's also an issue if you're doing, like, big dinner parties and you have, like, 12 of these out, then you can, like, run all them really quickly versus if you have the big ones, you might you might have to run different ones. So so there's some space saving considerations, I think, of having a universal glass. But, yeah, I think, like, it just again, it's one of those glasses where, like, no one's gonna be offended, if you serve them with a universal glass. So I heard one thing, and I wanna call this out too. You said run these in the dishwasher. So these are hand blown, but they're also safe to run-in the dishwasher. Yeah. So this is, like, a big misconception that people have is that, like, for some reason, some marketing is like that. I don't know why. I I don't think it's accurate. I I don't know. Like, I think it's just to reduce, the company's liability or something where they say, like, oh, I want to you should just you should hand wash it. But the the fact of the matter is is that a dishwasher is way, way gentler on a glass than a human's hands are. That's true. Every glass that I've broken, I broke it when I was washing it by hand. Yeah. It's a little bit like like a car, like an AI car. Like an AI car. I'm I'm using the wrong term. What is the term for an AI car that drives you around? Like a self driving self driving car? A self driving car. Yes. A self driving car is killing way fewer people than, like, a person driving it. It's the same it's the same concept. Like, a a computer is just better at washing glasses safely than a human is. It's just one of those things that computers do better than humans. So feel free to use a use a dishwasher for it. We also have I think we are the only people in this industry that have, like, a policy where if it breaks in your dishwasher, just let us know and we'll figure it out. You know? So we'll get placed or refunded or whatever. You know? Like, we want people to use the dishwasher. And if you break it in a dishwasher, then it's pretty obvious. What's either dishwasher's fault or our fault. Sure. We will take the responsibility and say it's probably our fault and not dishwasher's fault, and we'll replace it for you. Nice. Okay. So safe to use the dishwasher with these either at home or, like you said, in a commercial way, I'm sure they're like, well, hell, yeah. We're not hand washing, like, 50 glasses every night. So that's super important to have that. This podcast is sponsored by Vochill. When you're enjoying a glass of wine, temperature matters. And you don't need to be a wine expert to know this. You know this the minute you realize you forgot to put the bottle of wine in the fridge and now you're stuck with lukewarm Sauvignon Blanc that is the opposite of refreshing. You know adding ice cubes will just water the wine down, but it seems like it's your only option. Not anymore. I wanna introduce you to one of my favorite wine gadgets, Vochill. This gadget is as simple as it is elegant. It will keep wine perfectly chilled in your own wine glass. No more clunky metal or plastic tumblers or ice in your wine. While this gadget is an absolute must during the summer months, I don't enjoy wine without it from June to September. It's also incredibly useful for those days when you're craving a glass of white or rose, but but you don't want to wait for the bottle to chill in the fridge. VoChill offers a stemmed and stemless chiller in multiple colors, so you're bound to find one that's perfect for you. They also make the perfect gift. 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So you can always catch up if you can't make it live. Oh, and did I mention it's virtual which means you get to do all of this from the comfort of your sofa in your PJs. No need to worry about driving in crappy traffic, finding a designated driver, or spending an arm and a leg on a taxi. Wanna give it a try without the commitment? You're in luck. Right now, I'm offering a free class pass to anybody who wants to try out the Court Crew virtual wine tasting club. With this pass, you'll be able to join a Court Crew event of your choosing. No strings attached. I don't need your credit card. I don't need you to sign up for anything. You'll be my guest. Simply head to korkandfizz.com/ free class pass to get your class pass and be 1 step closer to becoming a member of the best wine tasting club around, the court crew. I can't wait to see you there. Now let's get back to the show. So I'm looking at the on the website, I was looking around, and you have 2 of kind of your larger bowl glasses. There's one that's called the aromatic, which makes sense, kind of what we were talking about, the idea of getting those aromas. But there's also one called the obsession. They both seem to be like that large bowl, but the obsession, like, dips inward in the middle. Yeah. What effect does that have on the wine? So there's no effect on the wine from a smell or taste perspective. Because, really, like, if you think of, like, the mechanics of it, like, basically, it's how much ethanol is exposed to air and then how much that's concentrated at the top. So you'll see those measurements are the same, roughly, between the two glasses. So they're not meant to be, different in terms of the aromatics or the taste. Obviously, taste doesn't really change, based on the glass. But well, except in the to the extent that it's aerated and then some of the taste changes on the palate. But the tulip shape is a really, really nice thing to have. If you drink out of the tulip, I'm calling the the one that goes out the tulip. Yeah. That shape is really nice to drink out of. Because if you think about, like, how far up you have to lift the glass in order to have the wine go into your mouth, it's not as high. So when you're drinking wine over the course of the night, you just have to lift the glass less, and so some people prefer that experience. Oh, that's so cool to think about. It's not so it's not there's also there's so much to the the glassware. So you're talking about the obsession is the one that has the little tulip kind of goes in a little bit. And so like, not only for the glassware are you thinking about the taste and the aroma, but you're also thinking just like the full experience of drinking a wine. And as little as the thing is that is, I'm sure it does make a difference, you know, if if that's kind of just you get used to that as well of just, like, a nice little not having to tip as much when you're drinking the wine. I think it's it's definitely better from that perspective. But, typically, I think people pick glasses, not based on any of those things we've talked about, but mostly on how it looks. And that's honestly, I think, the best way to pick the glasses. So like, on our website because because because I think all of them are gonna do a good job. Like, they're all like, we're talking about like, let's say a machine made glass is, like, you know, a 7 out of 10. You know? Like, everything we have is already a 9 out of 10. And, you know, all these little things probably, like, add 0.1 or 0.2 or something. You know? So at the end of the day, a lot of it is gonna be, like, how it looks, whether you like it. And they obviously look very different, the one that comes out versus the one that goes in. So if you like the look of one of them, I I would just go for that one, and and everything else will pop itself out. Right. Just keep it simple. Right? We don't have to make things, like, in the live world. We like to dive into a little bit. It's like just keep it simple. Okay. So on the website, I noticed that you mentioned the products are responsibly sourced. Can you talk a little about what that means to you and the company? Yeah. So obviously, like, we've visited all the factories and the people blowing these glasses, and we meet with them and make sure that they're paid well for what they're doing. It's important to understand that we are the most expensive glass that is produced in the factory that makes the glasses. And when I say factory, it's basically Sure. People blowing glasses. So it's not not like don't think of, like, a Yeah. The industrial revolution comes to mind whenever you say factory in, like, a big, like, sawmill. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know what the term is. I don't know what the right term is, but I'm just gonna call it factory. It's fine. And, so we're you know, we pay multiples higher than what other other glasses these people are making. And so if you're a skilled artisan blowing these nice glasses, you can make more money per unit of time, theoretically. I mean, now the issue is it's harder to make these glasses. So if you're not as skilled, then it might take you longer. And so it doesn't work out. But if you're skilled and you're able to make these in a in a good time frame, then you're paid more per glass. And so that also helps with, this this concept. Yeah. And I think because I think it's important. I did I wanted to call this out because I think, you know, when you first hear, like, oh, we're bringing the price down, it's easy to imagine that, like, you're cutting the cost at that early part. Right? And and so I wanted you to get to kinda talk about that on, like, how you bring that price down. Yeah. So we're we're cutting, like I said, like, these glasses in different regions cost different things. It's not because at the head, it's different prices. It's because there's middlemen. Typically, there's an importer. There might be a distributor as well. Some of these companies are a little I think they they have more employees than they they need to have. So there's a lot of costs in these in the in the middle that, you know, really increase the price of these glasses, and that's that's really where we, you know, chat. And, again, like like, we're we're vertically integrated in in a sense. So it's like, you know, we buy it from the factory. Like, we don't own the fact we obviously don't own the factory, but we buy it from a factory. Yeah. And then and you buy it directly from us. And then, like, any replacements and all that stuff. And now, obviously, we do still have some retail stores, like but that's a tiny amount. That's like less than maybe like 5% or something of our businesses that very little. Most of our glasses are sold directly through us. And so, like, if a glass breaks or something, you come to us, and we replace it for you. But that's totally fine because we own, like, the entire thing. So when I replace the glass, I'm only paying what I pay at the factory Yeah. Plus, you know, whatever. Right? Whereas if you have an importer and distributor, then it's not the first of all, I don't even know if they replace it, but it's not the the brand that ends up covering it. It's the distributor, the importer, or the retailer, someone in the middle of this chain that's covering it. And so they need to build in margin for that, and that that margin doesn't get billed back to the the original producer. Yeah. And so all you can see all these things result in higher prices than than you really need, to sustain this business. Yeah, absolutely. No, and that's great to hear. I think that's, it makes a lot of sense. It's that whole idea of just, yeah, there's some why have a 1000000 people in the middle when you can just go from the like you said, the factory to you and then directly selling it. So then we get that opportunity to have a really nice glass. So this question might seem a little strange, but I'm just curious. Do you have a favorite wine and wine glass combo? Oh, I don't have a wine glass combo. Like I said, like, I think all these glasses are pretty nice, and they're not gonna massively make a huge difference. I I think I use the Prestige the most personally. Like, to me, that's like the true universal glass, but, you know, I can't call that. People will be confused. But, yeah, I use that the most, and I'll drink basically anything out of that. Alright. So you just have a go to wine glass, not so much a a combo. Well, I I have I have a bunch of glasses obviously at my I have I probably have the the one biggest collection of, like, my glasses and my competitors' glasses and, you know, I'm always spying on what I'd be ordering. But in terms of, like, my favorite wine, that's a really hard one, you know, because I really like a very broad range of wines. Mhmm. I really like aged wine a lot. That's like Mhmm. That's like one thing I think I'm different than than a lot of people on is I try to drink a little bit older kind of stuff. I've been finding some, like, pretty cool, like, new modern nebulos recently. So that's been Yeah. So that's been cool. And you and you drink those out of the those go into the precision glass? Prestige. Prestige. Thank you. Those go into the Prestige glass. We do have a precision glass to smaller. Yeah. Alright. So those go into the prestige glass. So like you said, I could go just as well into the the other one. They all kind of work wonderfully together. Okay. So before I have a little speed round that I do with everyone on the podcast here, Before we get into that, is there anything new and exciting or anything that you wanted to share about that we have not touched on? Yes. So we also have cocktail glasses. So if you go on our website, you can see all of our cocktail glass offering. So we're basically taking, you know, all those, really nice pleasant things that like the light and thinness of the hand blown wine glasses, and we're applying that to cocktail glasses. And, you know, we think it's the same thing that it's just gonna change people's expectations about what a nice glass for anything. We call them cocktail glasses. We can drink water out of them. You can drink I'm drinking, I'm drinking tea out of iced tea out of this. Nice. Nice. I don't know if the video will go on, your thing. But, yeah, it's just it's it's the same pleasant experience of having a nice light glass, but not necessarily for wine. Cool. Okay. Very fun. Alright. So like I said, I I always end these with a little speed round. Now I call the speed round simply because I want you to just not think too hard on these because they are gonna be, like, one of those difficult questions if you just, like, let it sit for too long. So the first one is similar to what I asked earlier, but I'm gonna add a little bit to the end of it. What is your favorite wine at the moment? Which it sounds like you may have already this, but feel free to throw something else in or be more specific if you want. The one that's been the most life changing recently is a Nebbiolo called Darcy, d a r c y. Okay. Where is that from? Langi. Nebbiolo. Ah, okay. I love that one. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Kinda love Italy. Okay. How about a favorite wine region that you've ever visited? Oh, for sure, Burgundy. Burgundy. Yeah. Yeah. I I'm, hopefully heading to France this, fall, and I think Burgundy's definitely gotta be on there. Everybody who's ever said they've been to Burgundy, it's towards the top of their list. It's like incredibly small. If you like biking, you can, literally like bike to, especially in the Cote de Beaune, like, Meursault, wherever you just easily bike there, which is nice because then you can, like Drink as much wine? Yeah. That's what I love it. Okay. How about a wine region you'd like to visit? I haven't actually been to Bordeaux, and I think that's probably next step on the Okay. List of places I need to go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's so funny. I find that people are either, like, burgundy or Bordeaux lovers, but they're it sounds like you're maybe, like, you enjoy both just for I because I feel like they're so different. Burgundy is like that very, like, romantic and, like you said, kind of smaller feel. And Bordeaux is this, like, big, you know, castles and big chateau kind of idea. And my main motivation is just drinking some, like, cool rare wines at good prices. I think Bordeaux is gonna have that. Oh, yeah. Yes. It will. Absolutely. Okay. How about a favorite wine and food pairing that you're enjoying? Okay. So I don't do that. I don't believe in, food wine pairing. I mean, obviously, obviously, like, there's certain things that pair well, and there's things that don't pair well. Like, objectively, like, that's probably true. But I don't believe in wine pairings. Like, I don't do wine pairings. And I I typically will just pick whatever wine I like to drink, and then I pick whatever food I wanna eat. And most likely, those are gonna those are gonna go well with each other. So I love it. I've definitely heard that from plenty of people before. Almost all somebody actually believe that. Yeah. Of just like it's just like eat what you like and drink what you like, and almost most of the time that's going to work out. Yeah. Like, most people who like wine pick like, the most of the world pick what they eat, and then they think about what wine they wanna drink with it. Yeah. But most people who like wine pick the wine first, and then maybe they pick the food based on what wine they're drinking, but I don't know. Like, that's that's usually, like, counterintuitive to me. But Sure. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. Last question. This is just for those looking for maybe trying to keep things a little more affordable. Are there any bottles of wine or, like, kinda styles of wine that you think are, like, a good bet to go for for, like,$15 or under? I'm not a great person to ask in that that part of the the price range. There's definitely there's probably great wines there too. I just but definitely, like, under, say, like, 30, there's great ones. Like, we just last night, we had a Herve Soueau VIN de France, like a Syrah. And I mean, at the restaurant, it was $70, So it must not be much more than 35. Right. Right. So here, let me search this up. Yeah. I feel like I mean, at least for me, I'd say, yeah. Definitely under 30, I tend to send people to the old world. You know, France, you know, Spain. Of course, you're gonna find bottles upwards decently high, but you can also find great bottles of wine, old world wine for 30, and if not less. It just kinda depends on where you're at. Well, this Herbesault, this is I just checked. It's $32 as the wine's wine search are, low. So, I mean, yeah, so you can get some pretty good wines in that in that range. Obviously, like, you don't need me to explain to your audience that if you want good wines at good prices, you know, probably avoid, champagne, avoid burgundy, avoid Barolo, avoid California. Right. California. So Definitely just probably avoid US. But, like, I mean, those are some of my favorite regions just to be clear. But if you want Yeah. Good stuff. Portugal is a great place. Spain is definitely great. I don't know about Italy as much because I feel like Italy, like the at least like the wines people generally drink are are pretty expensive. There's definitely parts of France. Jura used to be like, I love Jura. Jura, I use I just call Jura like the poor man's white burgundy. Although, but now it's kind of like it's also I think people are starting to really like it and it's starting to get popular and it's so sad because I'm with you. Yeah. So then what's the poor man's Jura? Is it a savoir or something? You know? Like, I'm sure there's some great Keep going. Yeah. Oh, funny. I mean, just it's hard 15. Right? It's hard because you gotta I mean, if you're not it's it's not a mass produced wine and, like, you know, they're also with wine, there's definitely an importer. There's definitely a distributor. There's the 3 tier system. So, like, you know, from 15, how do you get back down to the guy who's actually making the wine? It's it's it's pretty hard, but I'm sure you could do it. You can also the other big thing seems like beer is a great drink. I love good beer. You could get great beer for for $15. You know? Like You know, I think that's the first time I've ever had an answer of of beer, but I love it. Best bottle of wine under 15? Go for some beer. I don't know how much Hill Farmstead Abado Hill Farmstead is, but it's probably, like, 50 a a cantillon at the at the in Belgium is literally, like, $10. So, I mean, beer is a great option. Yeah. No. And I and I agree. I think that it's so interesting. I I try to walk the line between, like, I want wine to be approachable to everyone. So no matter what your budget is, I want you to be able to try wine and and start, you know, learning about wine. And I think you can do that with any wine. And I think the more you learn about it, maybe the more you're willing to spend a little more or do that. But I also recognize I had somebody on here who's, you know, she owns a natural wine shop. But she also just said simply, no, I don't think there's a bottle of wine under $15 that can be, like, responsibly sourced. Like you said, like, how much are they paying the people making it when you think about all the people in the middle? And, like, is$15 even possible with that? And her answer was simply no, and that's that's fair too. It's like you gotta find the right balance. Maybe in France you can, but maybe in France you can. But maybe in France, you can get God, I have a friend there and he's like, Yeah, I got this at the grocery store. It's a really great bottle. And it was like€5. And I was like, That's better than any bottle, 15 to $20 here. Like, I'm just like But to bring it back to my business, like, that's probably just because, you know, the retailer is buying it directly from the guy that's making it in, like, Auverin or some random region. And then he's marking it up, like, 30%, and then, you know, there you go. $15 at the store. The same thing with our glasses and why we're, like, half the price of our competitors. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. Well, thank you so much for joining. I'll make sure to send people I'll put in the show notes glass.vin, but glass is gla s. Right? Yes. It's just the one s. And I'll put the website for that so you can check out all the wine glasses and kinda add a little luxury to the everyday life. These are wine glasses meant to use all the time. And I wanted to give your viewers a coupon code. So should we make it like cork fizz, maybe? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Corkfizz. And then 10% off anything on the site. So Wonderful. Thank you so much. I will add that as well into the show notes so people can give the glasses a try. Awesome. Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for joining. Have a good one. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. If you loved it as much as I did, I would so appreciate it if you could do the thing, take a quick second, rate it, leave a review if you haven't already, and be sure to share it with wine lovers in your life so they can enjoy the episode too. If you're interested in trying a high end hand blown wine glass, but at affordable pricing, be sure to check out Glassvin. I, at home here, have the universal glass, and it is wonderful. Head to glass.vin, that is gl as.vins, so glass is only one s, glas.vins to shop now, and they have a special coupon code for all the listeners. So you can use a Quark Fizz, corkfizz, to get 10% off. In next week's episode, I'll be talking all about sparkling wine. We all love champagne, but I can't wait to introduce you to the many other styles of sparkling wine from around the world. And did you know that sparkling wine was discovered on accident? I can't wait to tell you all about it. Thanks again for listening. And as a thank you, I'd like to share my free shopping guide, 15 wines under $15. Simply head to my website, corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and join my mailing list. Cheers.