“Zalto glasses are in my view the finest on the market. Perfectly balanced, ultra elegant, and just a sheer joy to use.” - John Szabo, MS

"The finest, thinnest stem I have ever used. Delicate, elegant, incredibly light and a pleasure to hold." - Sara d'Amato

“What I love is that Zalto glasses are the thinnest and most delicate glasses I have come across, yet seem springy and almost elastic in the hand. The Zaltos were originally Venetian, but the glasses are made in northern Austria and over the border in the Czech Republic. Best of all, the manufacturers say they are best washed in a regular dishwasher. ......they are cheaper than many of Riedel's top models and would give any serious wine lover a real thrill over the closeness of contact they offer.” Jancis Robinson MW, www.jancisrobinson.com

“I didn't think that there would be anything better on the glass-market....this glass is.” Francois Mauss, President of the ‘Grand Jury European'.

“I've recently come across another glass manufacturer whose glasses I really love: Zalto. These are truly beautiful hand blown glasses that are amazingly light and delicate, yet quite flexible and resilent too.” Jamie Goode, The Sunday Express, UK

“Lovely to handle – featherlight, very fine-rimmed and curiously flexible...compared to the Riedel Sommelier range they're very reasonably priced.” Fiona Beckett, www.matchingfoodandwine.com

Key points about Zalto glasses:

· Zalto is an astonishing new range of mouth-blown glasses from one of Austria's finest small glass blowing houses.

· They are lead oxide free which results in a lighter and more flexible glass that does not leach lead and will not cloud in the dishwasher.

· Despite their remarkable lightness and ultra fine edges, they are highly elastic and resilient. They can be washed in a domestic dishwasher and are made for daily use.

· They have been designed to maximise the aromas and flavours of quality wines by Austrian wine guru Hans Denk.

· Hand blown crystal glasses of this quality are never cheap, yet Zalto are far less expensive than Riedel Sommelier (the equivalent Riedel range). In fact they are typically less than half the price.

· Zalto glasses work – they have recently topped the most comprehensive and thorough international testing of wine stemware against all comers. The judging panel was extremely experienced and included George Riedel himself!

Zalto lead free glassware is the most exciting range of wine glasses to hit the market in decades. Jancis Robinson's quote above hits the nail on the head. The more delicate the glass, the more pleasurable is it to drink from and Zalto produce stemware that seems to almost disappear in the hand, bringing you closer to the wine. They are a feat of glass blowing and design genius. They are indeed finer than any other glass on the market, yet they are also far more robust, more elastic and therefore more resilient, than you would expect, a result of them being lead-free (most crystal is lead crystal). Zalto glasses therefore obviously do not leach lead, a problem that is getting more and more attention in Europe, and they are dishwasher friendly as they are flexible and will not cloud. This gives them the ability to be used as an everyday glass that not only looks terrific but also functions extremely well.

The Zalto glasses were designed specifically to maximise the flavour of wine, beer and digestives by Austrian wine expert Hans Denk who started with a vision to produce the ultimate wine tasting glasses. Denk is one of Austria's most revered wine tasters. When designing the glasses he came upon the idea to utilise the tilt angles of the earth which resulted in a range of glasses that were not only strikingly original to look at but also allowed a very wide bowl width, in turn enabling optimum surface space for a particular style of wine. The angular shape of the glasses also means that if a Zalto glass is knocked over, it tends to hit the strongest part of the glass first. Interestingly, these angles were used by the Romans to design food storage vessels as it enabled produce to stay fresher for longer periods and to taste better. We cannot verify whether or not the Romans got this right (although let's agree that they tended to get more things of this nature right than wrong) however we can say that the glasses that were inspired by this claim are truly work. In comparative tastings we have found that they improve the aromatic and flavour intensity of wines significantly.

Although they are strikingly beautiful, these are not objects d'art to display in a cabinet or only use for the most expensive or rare wines. This is glassware that stands at the rarefied point of where form meets function, where beauty meets practicality. The range is exactingly precise, highly refined but equally importantly user friendly. Aljoscha Goldschmidt, proprietor and winemaker at Corzano e Paterno in Tuscany, uses the Zalto Universal glass at Vinitaly, one of the world's largest and busiest wine events. He recently told us “Once you use Zalto, you can't use anything else”. He wasn't wrong, and we haven't used any other glass, both personally and in our professional capacity ever since we first encountered them in Europe. Goldschmidt's comments have been independently echoed by a plethora of wine trade professionals we work with both here in Australia and overseas. Some may wonder how we communicated before the mobile phone or how we shared information before the internet. We wonder how we coped before we came across these glasses! They seem to magnify everything that is poured in them, bringing a piercing clarity that no other glass we know of can match. To give credit where it's due, we first encountered Zalto while tasting with Pierre and Sophie Larmandier at Larmandier-Bernier in Champagne. They were feather-light, fine-boned, looked exceptional and most importantly, were superb to taste from. With further investigation we found out that these glasses were being used by a wide range of top producers in Austria, France and Italy. We purchased some for our own use and, after comparing their performance against Reidel Sommelier range and after testing their durability at home for over a year at home, we felt compelled to begin importing them in to Australia. We recommend these beautiful glasses, carafes and decanters to you without hesitation, be it for your daily use or as a special gift for that hard to buy for wine lover. They are certainly the finest glassware that we have encountered.