Waterford Crystal Glasses Shine at Casa Brasil

A beautifully-made glass can really enhance whatever is in it and this couldn’t have been truer than at the sensory wine and cachaça tasting at Apex Brasil’s Casa Brasil. Waterford Crystal rocks glasses were chosen to showcase the two cachaças while the white glass and the hybrid glasses were used for white and rosé wines.

Waterford Crystal boasts an elegant range of handcrafted crystal wine glasses. The crisp rims and detailed bowls capture the dense notes and gives the beautiful flavours room to breath – Perfect for this blind tasting event, where taste and smell are heightened and the feel of the glass in the hand, so very important.

Hospitality guests at the special “sensory wine and cachaça tasting experience” led by world-renowned Dr Hoby Wedler, were blindfolded before tasting from the various glasses. All to enhance the senses and fully experience the true flavours of the drinks.

The samples were small and the glasses comparatively large, but this was an absolutely perfect way to maximise on having enough space to inhale the delicious flavour notes dancing around the beautiful bowls of the glassware.

Dr. Hoby Wedler is an insightful, disarming, and passionate thinker who loves to bring people together to help them see new possibilities. The experience was given a touch of subtle elegance that only Waterford Crystal can add to any place-setting

With the heart of a teacher, Hoby helps turn dreams into realities. Hoby has been completely blind since birth. He is a chemist, an entrepreneur, a sensory expert, and is driven by his passion for innovative, creative, and insightful thinking.

Hoby wowed wine sector experts at the event when he correctly identified the year, alcohol content and acidity of three different wines that he had never tasted or heard of before – This was the moment when the guests realised that they were in the company of a genius.

Hoby is remarkably tuned into his surroundings and has frequently chosen to walk the unbeaten paths in life over known territories – This time it was an immersive Brazilian event in London to showcase a fantastic range of Brazilian wines to hospitality industry professionals and everyone was delighted to meet him.

In 2016, Hoby earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UC Davis. His fearlessness is infectious, and he has actively paved the way for others to join him in his quest to follow passions regardless of the challenges that lie ahead.

Aroma samples were also used to really set the scene with three pots containing fresh passion fruit and lime zest; star anise and a third with light muscavado sugar

All twenty participants were blindfolded at the start as Hoby led a meditation session to get participants into the zone – purely focusing on using the ears to set the scene and then talking about everything that they would associate with Brazil.

“We then moved on to the tasting and the aromatic samples,” said Catherine Farinha of The Chefs’ Forum. “It was a mind-blowing and emotional experience for all of us as we felt what it was like to walk a mile in Hoby’s shoes in an hour- long journey of touch, taste, smell and hearing the way he does when exploring food and wine- It was really quite extraordinary.”

“The Waterford Crystal stemware greatly added to the whole experience as the guests were encouraged to cover the top of the glasses and taste the wines and cachaças again for yet another flavour perception of tropical smells that filled the bowl.”

The wines being tasted in the Waterford Crystal Hybrid and white wine glasses were: