John's Story

Like so many things, wineGrasp® was created because of a personal frustration of mine. After years of going to outdoor concerts, visiting wineries, and watching sunsets with my wife, Lisa, we always faced the same problem: When we wanted both hands free, where would we set our wine glasses? 

We made do, as I’m sure you do, but having a good time was almost stressful! It really hurt when the inevitable happened, our hard-earned money spent on great wine, tipped over into the grass, concrete or sand. 

As a custom cabinetmaker, I set out to solve this problem. I’d created something that Lisa and I could use to hold our glass while enjoying charcuterie, stand up and clap our hands at the concert, or take it to wineries on our travels. We think wine tastes better in stemware and I love the occasional straight up martini!

It took four years for me to perfect the design in wood. Friends and family were my testers and I was always tweaking here and there until I got it just right. The wineGrasp® hugs the glass, and grips like crazy.  Now we get to have our stemmed glasses and the wine stays INSIDE the glass, ready to drink when we sit down at the concert, tailgating with NU Wildcats, or quietly watching the sunset on our trips to wine country. 

As we took wineGrasp® on the road, people started approaching us asking where we got “that thing” that was holding our wine glasses. A new business was started. I wanted it to be waterproof with all the outdoor use it would get. I decided to patent the design, get a custom mold and voila...the wineGrasp® you see today. Once again, necessity is the mother of invention.