What Glass Should You Use?

We spend a lot of time deciding on what wines to buy, when to drink them, who to drink them with and what food to have with them. How much time and consideration do we give when deciding what to drink our special wines out of? Many times I have opened a decent wine, and consumed it out of an ordinary glass. But does this show off the best characters of the wine?

Most people have several different wine glasses in their cupboard. These can often be labelled “cheap”, “everyday” and “special”. The special glasses sit in the cupboard gathering dust, because we are scared of one of the set getting broken.

But lets stop and think about what we are doing! How much do we spend on a bottle of wine, $10, $20, $50 or more? What do we drink our carefully chosen wines out of? A glass costing $2, $10, $20?

I live in a clumsy house, and probably break a wine glass every two months. I also open about 5 bottles of wine per week, (no, not just for me). That is about 40 bottles in a two month period. Using a $20 glass, this works out at about 50c worth of broken glass per bottle, or 10c per glass of wine. If the average cost of a bottle is $20, then this is only 5% of the cost.

Before we go on, is there any benefit to using a more expensive glass? Not particularly. Is there any benefit to using a better glass? Definitely. Wine smells and tastes differently depending on the glass you use.

Don’t take my word for it though, do a little experiment with your next wine. Poor a splash into a coffee cup, water glass, cheap wine glass and your favourite glass. Smell the wine from each, then taste the wine from each. If you do not notice any difference whatsoever, then you should probably stop reading here.

Why does the glass make a difference?

Shape – In general, a glass with a large bowl that tapers towards the top makes a good all purpose glass. The glass should taper from the bowl to the rim. This allows for a decent surface area of the wine, and concentrates the aromas at the top.

Size – The bowl needs to be large enough to allow the wine to be swirled without spilling, but also have enough wine in it to drink. I would recommend only filling the glass to about ¼ full.

Stem – Use this to hold your glass for two reasons. It keeps your wine glass clean so that the wine continues to look good and more importantly, it will stop you from heating the wine with your hands.

Lip – One of the most important issues is whether the lip is rolled or not. Cheap glasses tend to have a rolled lip (rounded at the top) as the extra thickness makes the glass stronger. This affects delivery of the wine into the mouth. A cut lip delivers the wine in a precise flow onto the tongue.

Availability – You need to be able to replace glasses as they break, or buy extras to cover future breakage.

What To Buy?

This depends on your budget. The Riedel “Chianti” glass in the vinum range is the best all purpose glass that I have tried. This is the glass that I use at home. At $35 + per glass, it is not cheap, but it is definitely worth it. (Peters of Kensington has a pack of four for $102). If you balk at paying this much for a glass, then the Rona “City” red wine glass is a good alternative. It is available from Peters of Kensington.

The one wine that the “Chianti” glass does not suit is champagne. A good champagne flute is essential for the appearance of bubbles. For style and functionality, the Riedel “Cuvee Prestige” in the vinum range is a great glass, but any good flute with a cut rim will work.

If money is no object, then you can buy different Riedel glasses for almost all styles of wines. Save your money though as in reality, the “Chianti” and “Cuvee Prestige” glasses from the vinum range will do just fine. You can then spend more on the wines.

Conclusion

You may think that all this talk about glasses affecting wines is a load of nonsense, and the effects of a glass is marginal. I would counter that a quality glass looks great on the table, and can’t hurt the wine. A poor quality glass looks bad, and may make your special wine taste all wrong. Go ahead, try the experiment at home.