Lenox, a leading supplier of tabletop, giftware and home entertaining products, is proud to announce a collaboration with Victoria James – who was the country’s youngest sommelier at 21, and partner and Director of Beverage at New York & Miami’s Michelin-starred COTE restaurants. Together, Lenox and James have created an exclusive collection of stemware designed to transform the way wine drinkers experience wine.
The carefully thought-out glasses were developed specifically for the climatic regions from which the wine comes. Instead of matching your glass to the grape, Lenox and James focus on where the wine was created. This is a secret all sommeliers know— what matters most is where the wine comes from, this is what develops the overall structure and ripeness of the grapes. For cooler climates, where less sunshine hours and cooler temperatures can often mean more moderate richness and alcohol levels, alongside elevated acidity and more delicate aromatics, the narrower opening and smaller bowl allows the nuanced details of the wine to be captured and honed. For warmer climates, where elevated temperature and sunshine levels can lead to more ripeness, aromatics, alcohol and richness, the wider bowl allows the wine to expand and open.
“The world of wine can be daunting – I remember when I first entered the space I felt like a deer in the headlights,” said Victoria James, “I wanted to design glasses that weren’t fussy or snobby, but that made the drinker feel confident, while simultaneously making the wine taste better. To me, that’s the best of both worlds. Together with Lenox, I was able to create a collection of glasses that both sommeliers and everyday drinkers would want to use.”
These new Signature Series glasses, which are an addition to the Tuscany Classics collection, feature a thin lip to help maximize the flow of wine, and slender stem and base for ease of swirl and aeration.
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Victoria to create this unique line of wine glasses, which perfectly embodies our shared desires to simplify and elevate the consumers’ experiences,” said Bob Burbank, Lenox CEO. “Lenox’s strong history of glassware design, combined with Victoria’s knowledge of wine, has resulted in the creation of two new unique glasses to taste a world of wine.”
Victoria James is an award-winning sommelier and a partner at Gracious Hospitality Management, which includes in its portfolio the Michelin-starred Cote Korean Steakhouse—where James serves as the Director of Beverage and oversees more than 1,500 labels in both NYC & Miami. She is also the author of Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé, and most recently, Wine Girl, a memoir and bestseller in the U.S., UK, and Canada, as well as a wine columnist for Forbes magazine. James landed her first job in the restaurant industry as a young teen and became a certified sommelier at age 21 and has since become a champion for young women in the wine industry, a historically male-dominated field.
The collection created in partnership with Victoria James is available in sets of 2 or 4 – by the region – and is also available in a 4-piece set that features 2 warm region and 2 cool region glasses.
