What sort of glass goes with what sort of wine? Few wine drinkers could answer the question with any confidence, but it’s not hard to learn. With rare exceptions, wine glasses have a base, a stem and a bowl. To generalise for the sake of clarity, the bowls of red wine glasses and white wine glasses are tulip-shaped, the red bowl being wider and rounder than the white; champagne flutes are long and slim.
Wine Glassware: the Basics
The glass should be clear, since one of the pleasures of wine is visual: the connoisseur will always begin by holding the glass up to the light in order to appreciate the colour of the wine. And a wine glass should always be held by the stem. This is usually said to be a means of preventing the heat of the hand from warming the wine, but it also keeps the bowl of the glass clean.
Wine glassware can be made of cut or fused glass, but blown glass is preferable, since the thinner rim is more pleasant to drink from. The finest glass is lead crystal, but nothing is lost by using ordinary blown glass. Good-quality cheap wine glasses are readily available.
There is a reason for the characteristic shape of the wine glass. The tapering concentrates the aroma, and makes it possible to swirl the wine in the glass (which intensifies the bouquet by drawing in oxygen) without spilling it. In order to allow the swirling, a wine glass should never be more than half full.
Red Wine Glasses
The bowls of red wine glasses are wider and rounder than those of white wine glasses, allowing the wine to breathe: the wide bowl increases the surface area of the wine and lets air get at it, which helps it to release its aroma.
The connoisseur may distinguish between the Bordeaux glass (considered to be more suitable for such big-bodied wines as Cabernet and Merlot) and the Burgundy glass, the bigger bowl of which enhances the qualities of less intense wines, such as Pinot Noir.
White Wine Glasses
White wine glasses are rather narrower and straighter-sided than red wine glasses – the tulip shape is more pronounced. One advantage of this is that it reduces the surface area and thus keeps the wine cool for longer.
Again, there can be variations. Chardonnay, for example, is best suited to a tall glass with a relatively narrow bowl, while Sauvignon Blanc prefers a wider bowl – though still narrower than that of a red wine glass.
Champagne Flutes
Champagne flutes (suitable for all sparkling white wines) are tall and thin, which keeps the wine cool, and maintains the sparkle: there is less surface area to allow the bubbles to escape. They also add to the visual appeal of the wine, giving the bubbles longer to reach the surface. Note that champagne should never be swirled, as this will tend to flatten it by releasing a flurry of bubbles.
At one time, the favoured champagne glass was the coupe, which, very wide and shallow, was the precise opposite of the flute. If nothing else, this is good evidence that, whatever the theory, the shapes of wine glasses have a lot to do with fashion.
Riedel Wine Glasses
The notion that different glasses are appropriate for different kinds of wine comes from the Austrian wine glassware manufacturer Riedel. Riedel wine glasses are widely considered to be the finest.
But how many drinkers would notice a difference in taste if their wine were served in a different glass? Certainly, the Riedel notion that the shape of glass directs the wine to the most appropriate part of the mouth is without scientific foundation: the wine will taste the same whichever part of the tongue it hits first.
Provided that they have the basic characteristics, cheap wine glasses are fine. And for those who prefer to avoid the fuss and expense of keeping several sets, there is one glass which is appropriate for absolutely any wine. This is the 21.5 centilitre ISO tasting glass, a stemmed, tulip-shaped glass about 15.5 centimetres tall. Anyone who objects to its use on the grounds that it is inappropriate for the wine being drunk . . . is a snob.
Iain Manson - A Life – of Sorts Born in 1950 of a Scottish father and a Welsh mother, Iain Manson was brought up in Scotland, and graduated ...
