Wine glasses

  What isth the vessel thy pourth mine wineth?

I have never uttered those exact words but I am sure I am guilty of questioning the glass I have been given for wine once or..., ...my wife says too many times. Do you need a cupboard full of high end Riedel glassware; no but at least a dedicated wine glass is a start. Example,  I now know I can not drink wine out of a martini glass. My habit to swirl was also accompanied by my habit of cleaning up wine stains. (sorry Johnny)

I have to admit I have a cupboard full of Riedel glassware all supposedly for different grapes. Most of them are one offs now that their mates broke years ago. I have learned I prefer certain shapes for certain styles of wine and I always prefer my wine glass to have a stem. Most recently I have been using my small ISO tasting glass's because they are small, provide good aromas, and force me to keep consumption down as in "Wow, I better slow down it's been 4 glass's already."


There are a couple of practical reasons to have stemmed glassware and being able to hold your pinky out to look cool while drinking isn't one of them.

The first being wine temperature, your hand can warm up the wine while you are holding it. When wine is at the right temperature the aromas will be the most pronounced. The other reason is dirty, smelly, or even clean disinfected fingers. Our hands carry a lot of smells and can effect your ability to smell the wine clearly, but that's like high end snobbery :)

Another key factor for wine glasses is they should never see dish soap or dishwashers. These will leave residues that can affect the wines flavours. All my wine glasses get hand washed with hot water only. I will also smell each glass before I pour my wine into it to ensure no vial smells are lurking.

I also prefer the new trend to have my bubbly served in a proper wine glass and not the traditional skinny Champagne flute. Nice sparkling wines have great aroma profiles that only get noticed when slightly swirled in a bigger bowled glass.

Stay away from metal and some plastics as they will taint your wine by leaving unwanted flavours. Also stay away from any lead cups, historically it hasn't worked out so good. To sum it all up no need to break the bank. Just get a wine glass that has a bowl, a bit of a rim to avoid stained carpet syndrome, and keep them away from soap :)

Happy sipping!