As a child in rural Austria, Kurt Josef Zalto would often accompany his father, a fifth-generation glassmaker, to his workshop, where he fell in love with the family business.

“In a village like that, glass is not a product,” he said. “It is the sound of the furnaces, the smell of the workshop, the work of your father and your neighbors.”

Thirty years later, Mr. Zalto is one of the world’s leading glassware designers, renowned for his ability to combine craftsmanship and science, relentlessly tweaking a design to achieve the perfect sip.

“A few millimeters at the rim, a slightly different curve in the bowl, and the same liquid tells you a different story,” he said. “After all these years, that still surprises me every time.”

Mr. Zalto built his reputation designing wine glasses. A few years ago, he decided to shift his attention to what has long been an overlooked corner of glass design: whiskey.