Not just any glassware, mind you; stemless, plastic, shatterproof, recyclable, elegantly shaped, thin-walled and totally transparent. Oh, and ideal for wine.
The glasses are called Govino, which Joseph, a local St. Helena resident, designed and brought to market this year with financial support from LA partner Boyd Willat, himself a brainiac entrepreneur.
And unlike Govino glassware, which won’t shatter, even if you stand on it, the plastic glasses are a smash hit, breaking all sales expectations.
Boyd Willat and Joseph Perrulli, the inventors of Govino. Boyd’s earlier claims to fame: he invented the daily planner called Day Runner, as well as the easy-to-hold Sensa Pen.
“I always thought of myself as a budding inventor,” says Joseph, now 47, who tried all through the 1990s to bring any number of whacko ideas to market, including a hands-free dog leash.
“I thought I might want to be a stunt driver, or an actor, in Hollywood,” says Joseph who, instead, in 1998, got the bright idea that what the world needed was a better plastic wine glass.
He says that he found those cheap, poolside, snap-on stem, plastic glasses, with lips as thick as Joan Rivers’, totally offensive. “I asked myself, ‘Why couldn’t I make a decent glass out of plastic that looks and feels like a Riedel glass?’”
Joseph and Boyd spent nine years understanding why no one had broken the (injection) mold of poorly designed, poorly manufactured plastic glassware. It was a hard act to pull off.
“We traveled to four continents and visited a dozen plastic manufacturers to find one who could make Govino out of PETG,” says Joseph, summarizing their nine-year odyssey.
In the end, they found a firm, which could make their curved, easy-to-hold glass out of glycol-modified, polyethylene terephthalate.
If that’s a mouthful, you can pretend that you know more than the guy sitting on the barstool next to you; if he’s drinking out of a Govino, tell him he’s drinking out of a new-age plastic called PETG, appreciated for its stiffness, toughness and impact strength.
Better yet, tell the dude on the barstool that his Govino contains no BPA, which, you tell him, is the short form for “Bisphenol A,” which Canada has banned from bottles, including baby bottles, and which is under review by agencies here in the US.
In the last short while, Bisphenol A has become controversial because it is believed to mimic estrogen when consumed in sufficient quantities and thus could induce human hormonal responses. Or so they say.
"We are ready for your close-up, profile shot, Mr. Govino." Notice the indented ridge for your finger, which helps you hold the bulbous, sensually curved Govino glass. Govino looks like it's made of glass, and drinks like it too, but, in fact, it's p-l-a-s-t-i-c!
About the actual glass: I know this sounds stupid, but Joseph and Boyd have actually designed a plastic glass that is stunning, sensual and sexy. These are not terms usually found in the same sentence as “plastic.”
When one picks up a Govino plastic glass, though, there is a certain visual and tactile richness that makes the wine being sipped more compelling than had it been poured into, and sipped from, a regular wine glass.
The one element of use that needs attention is how to wash Govino glasses. They appear to make it through the wash cycle of just about any home dishwasher, but Joseph recommends pulling them out before the drying cycle begins.
In my commercial Hobart glass washer, which heats to 190 F for a 100 percent bacterial kill without soap, I had mixed results with Govino glassware. One load washed and rinsed perfectly, but one load, which hit the highest heat, melted, resembling glassware that might have been designed by Salvador Dali.
Let’s face it: “Melting Govino Glassware” is not ever going to be a collectible the way Dali’s “Melting Clocks” (The Persistence of Memory) has become. So don’t fool yourself about the investment opportunity if you overheat yours the way I did mine.
Joseph’s wonderdog, Miles, has absolutely NOTHING to do with this story, but napaman.com believes that Dogs Make the World a Better Place to Live and so whenever anyone profiled in this space has a Wonderdog, the pooch’s photo is included!
To date, sales of Govino have been brisk, particularly in the Bay area. Joseph says he is beholden to local wineries and retailers in Napa Valley for help in establishing his brand.
“Frog’s Leap started the ball rolling, serving wines at a Leap Year party in Govino glasses,” says Joseph.
“Sunshine Foods Market, in St. Helena, was our earliest retail supporter, followed closely by Leslie Rudd, who put them in his Napa Valley Dean & DeLuca and Oakville Grocery locations,” Joseph adds.
Cindy Pawlcyn became a big fan of Govino and offered one each to 800 guests at her Mustards Grill 25th Birthday Party last week. One of the guests was Christian Moueix of Dominus fame, who took such a liking to Govino that, the next day, he ordered hundreds for his winery.
And that’s how this Govino thing is snowballing; you see ‘em, you touch ‘em, you drink from them and … Presto! You’re a Govino Convert. Who needs Riedel when you’ve got unbreakable, shatterproof, recyclable, SEXY and SENSUAL Govino?
Retailers charge $2 to $3 per Govino glass and Joseph alerts napaman.com readers to be on the lookout for a stemless Govino PETG Champagne flute as well as a Govino PETG decanter. They’re showing up in the marketplace soon. But remember, you read about them here first.
If you are a retailer and want more information about this plastic glass, or if you are a consumer who wants to learn more about this invention, go to www.govinowine.com.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some sexy, shatterproof, see-through drinking to get to…