There is a tendency, even among professionals, to treat glassware as a constant, an invisible tool in service of something else. Yet, as Leopold Grupp, CEO of Stölzle Lausitz, makes clear in this episode of A Sommelier's Insight, the glass is anything but passive. It is, in his words, “a sensoric object… a tool for professionals… where you can amplify certain tastes and you can reduce others.”At the centre of the company’s philosophy is a phrase that carries deep meaning, “Born in Fire.” Grupp grounds it first in the literal, “glass is made by melting sand at 1500 degrees into glass… the fire in the furnace really creates this wonder of glass” but quickly expands its scope. The fire is also human. “This passion… travels along with the glass through the whole supply chain… to the sommeliers, to the winemakers, to the restaurant owners,” he says. It is a shared intensity, linking production to the moment a table is set and a bottle is opened.In this interview discover the passion behind the company that produce's some of the world's finest glassware.

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