Riedel

The Riedel family’s tradition of glassmaking began in 1756 in Bohemia. Having experienced economic booms and survived economic crises, the family went through highs and lows before finding a new home in 1957 in Kufstein in the Tyrol at the heart of Europe.

Across the centuries, all generations of the Riedel family have had one thing in common: an unconditional devotion to glass as a medium and an inner drive to always continue perfecting products and to create new, functional designs.

1973 is a milestone in the Riedel family’s history. Claus J. Riedel (1925-2004), the ninth generation, unveiled a groundbreaking innovation, the discovery of which would take the Riedel name in conjunction with glass again to the forefront of the world stage: the first “wine-friendly” glasses, handmade and mouth-blown, with thin-walled, oval-shaped bowls and a long stem. These glasses are now world-famous under the name Sommeliers. The Burgundy Grand Cru glass can be admired in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as a design classic. Some years later, his grandson Maximilian would also achieve the high honour by creating the “O” series of glasses.

The design of these wine-friendly glasses became the industry standard and a model for all functional wine glasses through to the present day. Many successful series of glasses and decanter designs created by Georg J. Riedel (10th generation) and Maximilian J. Riedel (11th Generation) would follow. Riedel has become a world-leading company in the field of functional wine glasses and is known worldwide as a synonym for the perfect instruments for enjoying the drinking of wine.