Jim Rokos Design - 13° 60° 104° Wine Decanter

Borosilicate Glass.
Mouth-blown and free formed by hand, without the use of moulds.

Winner of the 2012 Reddot design award

The title 13° 60° 104° refers to the three possible angles at which the decanter can sit. This choice of positions allows you to engage with the piece on an additional level offering an interactive and playful experience.

The various angles allow you to explore the decanter’s sculptural qualities. These options allow greater flexibility for the decanter to be incorporated into a space.

Ordinarily, a base would create an interruption to the form of a decanter. Here the bases are fully incorporated into the aesthetics of the structure, essentially creating the product’s style and design.

Placed at 13 degrees, the decanter begins the evening ‘sober’. As the drinking progresses, sitting at 60 degrees the decanter is a little tipsy. At the end of the evening, it sits at a drunken 104 degrees.

A bottle of wine continues to evolve with age; it is constantly changing and gaining complexity. This change happens most rapidly after the cork has been removed and the air is in contact with the liquid. Sadly the wine’s full range is rarely experienced because the rate at which the wine is drunk is greater than that of the transforming flavours. As drinkers turn the decanter, the interaction causes movement in the liquid, which encourages oxygen into the wine then increasing the rate of change. This allows the drinkers to experience a broader range of the wine’s potential flavours.

Home chef Arno Maasdorp, (owner of a magnificent beard and the man behind the Saltoun Supper Club) noted how the three concave bases are reminiscent of the deep punts found at the bottom of an expensive bottle of wine. Arno explains that the correct way to hold a bottle of wine is not by the neck but by the bowl and observes how it is possible to hold the large bowled 13° 60° 104° decanter here because the thumb can sit inside the punt. With his precise attention to detail, he advised that by making small adjustments to the scale, the three angles could also represent standard wine measures. Now the upright position measures a standard bottle, the middle position holds a Demi ('half' in French) and the decanter in the downward position needs a refill. “That’s very good”, offers the minimal, understated designer. “It’s bloody genius, that’s what it is”, corrects Arno.

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