About Wine Glassware

Wine glasses are an integral part of the wine experience. We spent many years scoffing at wine snobs with their special glasses but, in truth, we were wrong; very, very wrong.
We began our journey into wine glassware with a simple but very dramatic test that we suggest that you try. We tasted a Cabernet Savignon in a Riedel Bordeaux glass (the “proper” glass for a cab), and a simple, every day, one dollar, run of the mill, generic wine glass. In the Bordeaux glass all of the subtle nuances of the wine were open and very easily detectable in both taste and aroma. The really dramatic effect came when we tasted the same wine in the one buck generic glass. The aroma was muted and offered no specific direction. All we could taste was vanilla, oak, and alcohol, with absolutely none of the fruit showing up. It was truly an eye opener.
The reason for this turned out to be that a proper wine glass directs the wine to the specific place on the tongue to best tastes the wine. This proper direction of the wine is due to the shape of the bowl but more important, that there is no rim on a better wine glass. The rim, that rolled edge at the top of the glass, creates turbulence as the wine enters the mouth and spreads the wine across the entire tongue rather that directing it to specific taste areas. Take a look at the rim or your wine glass; if the edge is rolled or you can feel or see a rim, it is not a good glass for wine regardless of what you paid for it.

There are even more wine glass facts that are not just wine snobbery. The proper amount of wine to pour into a glass is about two or three ounces so the wine aroma has plenty of room to expand in the glass and develop its full potential. Then there is the color of the glass. Any color, other that clear, is not acceptable for a wine glass, so that eliminates Aunt Sophie’s purple wine glasses with the grape leaves on the stem that you inherited. A tinted or decorated glass will act to change the appearance of a wine. But there is still more. Some wine glasses are made of common glass and have a slight, often unnoticed green tint. Look down at the rim of the glass, in good light, and you will see color on poorer wine glass but none on the better glass. There is also the question of the thickness of the glass, the thinner the better. Lead-glass or as it is commonly known, crystal glass, is the best. It is colorless and can be made extremely thin while retaining its strength.

A new entrant to the wine glass market is the stemless, tumbler style. The idea of the stem on a wine glass proved to be a fallacy. It was thought that the heat of the hand would effect the flavor and aroma of a wine. Glass does not transmit heat well therefore, with the stemless glass there will be no adverse effect on the wine. Another very import benefit to the stemless wine glasses is that they are less delicate and will nor break as easily as the stemmed glasses often do.
One final point about wine glasses. While good wine glasses dramatically enhance the enjoyment of any wine, their cost can be high. Wine snobbery dictates that you should own glasses specifically designed for a particular variety. There are glasses specific for Cabernet Savignon, Chardonnay, Savignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and on and on. While it is absolutely true that a variety specific wine glass does offer the maximum reward to the drinker, the difference between them and the better generic wine glasses is slight but the price tag for the variety specific glasses can be high, however if you are a true wine lover, well worth the cost.