TERRA, the new goblet of the Consorzio Alta Langa
Exclusivity, elegance, iconicity: “TERRA” is the name of the new institutional goblet of the Consorzio Alta Langa, designed by Italdesign and created by the master glassmakers of Collevilca.
An object that is 100% Made in Italy, featuring unique characteristics, with an unconventional shape conceived to express exceptional values and highlight the qualities of Piedmont’s fine bubbles.
“Exactly ten years after the presentation of “Grande”, the Consorzio Alta Langa’s first glass, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro in 2012, we renewed our collaboration with Italdesign to study a glass that could best represent the qualities of our wines today,” says Giulio Bava, of the Consorzio. “The result is a fusion of aesthetics and functionality that unites the excellence of Alta Langa with that of Italdesign in a product that speaks the language of wine, design and Piedmontese savoir faire. What makes it interesting? Besides incorporating all the features of a tasting glass, this particular wine glass prevents the swirling of the wine, a movement often performed without even thinking, even when – as in the case of our Metodo Classico – it isn’t really necessary”
The Design
“What we do – explain Nicola Guelfo and Riccardo Matera, from Italdesign – is tell a story through form, dressing that story. This is the essence of design: to express the function of the object. With this glass, we wanted to tell the story of the prestige of Alta Langa Docg wines, and in order to do so, we investigated various areas of interest: art, architecture and everything that lies behind this wine. Above all, we studied the natural environments it comes from; we were inspired by the extraordinary and composite fabric of vineyards clinging to high hills and woods, of hazel groves and meadows. We observed the shapes of the vines and the bunches of grapes, the leaves, the shoots, but also the solemn and monumental atmosphere of the historic cellars, where the wines age on pupitres”.
And here we have this glass, in which three-lobed forms are the protagonists, from the foot to the bowl, with their essential and sophisticated lines. A shape that also represents an evolution of the design of the Consortium’s previous glass, conceived 10 years ago in the same spaces of Italdesign.
“The search for consistency with the previous design prompted us to return to the design and analysis of the “Grande” wine glass: we rethought its proportions and style in an evolution that elevates this glass towards a veritable objet d’art, which cannot be mass-produced but requires a very special manufacturing process, making each individual glass unique”.
The Production
Giampiero Brogi, master glassmaker at Collevilca, describes the process used for the production of the new glasses like this: “The particularity of the design of these glasses lies above all in the triangular shape of the bowl. This shape makes it necessary to blow them in a special cast-iron mould that we crafted to make it identical to the original design. the master glassmaker uses a steel rod measuring about a metre and a half long to take just the right amount of material from our furnace full of strictly lead-free molten crystal, twirling the rod the way you do with candyfloss. Then he passes this material on to another glassmaker, who prepares the mass, blowing it to give it a rough outline of shape that will allow it to enter the mould. The incandescent material is blown inside the mould, gently, without moving it. Meanwhile, two more master glassmakers mould the stem and foot of the glass. A fifth is responsible for injecting crystal through the mould of the stem and foot to join them: five people work simultaneously to create just one glass.
As soon as the glass has cooled slightly, it is detached from the rod and placed in the oven, where it cools from 480 degrees to room temperature within 5 or 6 hours. After the tempering process, the glass has to be finished and this step begins with the cutting of the upper rim, followed by the grinding of the joint and the polishing of the glass with very thin strips of emery paper. Next comes the sorting phase (a 30% reject rate is reached between the various steps), the application of the logo.
Before packaging, the work carried out on each of these glass – excluding cold processing – takes at least 12 minutes. Five people work on each glass at the same time; a maximum of 20 are made in an hour”.
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The name
“TERRA”, which means earth, synthesises the key concepts of simplicity and perfection. It expresses the strong bond with the territory that the Consortium proudly defends; it evokes the “Patto con la Terra” (Pact with the Earth) ideally signed in 2018, representing a model of conduct and a criterion of choice by the Consorzio Alta Langa to respect the high lands of the Langa. It contains the Latin numeral adverb “Ter” which refers to triplicity, “three times”: the three Piedmontese provinces where Alta Langa Docg is made – Asti, Cuneo and Alessandria -, the three circles of the Consortium’s logo, featuring the high hills of the Langhe with the mountain complex of Monviso in the background.
The Features
Height: 225 mm
Bowl diameter: 65 mm
Capacity: 300 ml
Design: Nicola Guelfo (Head of Industrial Design) and Riccardo Matera (Industrial Designer) – Italdesign
Production: Collevilca