Choosing the right wine glasses entails 6 main points of consideration: size, shape, design, weight, material and aesthetics.
The size of the glass is determined by which sort of wine you intend to tipple from it. As a rule, red wine glasses are larger than white wine glasses, and the ones intended for the best wines are larger than those utilized for more pedestrian wines.
Personally, I use a 17 oz.(480 ml.) capacity glass for ordinary red wines, and a 12 2/3 oz. (360 ml.) one for whites. In the case of Bordeaux, and other tannic, full-bodied, high quality reds, I use a 23 oz. (650 ml.) glass which was designed with Bordeaux in mind. I of course don’t fill my Bordeaux, or any other wine glass, to the brim. For one thing, seeing as a standard-sized wine bottle only holds 750 ml. of wine, there wouldn’t be very much left over if I did. And beyond that, both the large size of the glass and the fact that it’s widest at its midway point are critical design features which let the wine to “breathe” by permitting a wide surface area of wine to be in contact with the air to encourage oxidation. Oxidation aids in softening the tannins of a sturdy red that could otherwise be overly harsh, and lets you experience to a greater extent the complexity and variety of flavors in a noble red.
White wine has far fewer tannins than red wine, therefore it generally doesn’t gain anything from aeration. A smaller glass is also good for whites simply because they are served chilled. Obviously, it takes longer to drink a greater amount of wine, and you drink each glass of white wine before it has the opportunity to get overly. One white wine that is an exception to this rule is fine white Burgundy, such as Chablis or Montrachet. These extremely high quality whites do benefit from oxidation, and are best enjoyed at the temperature of standard red wines, around 55 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the quality level, I typically serve white Burgundy, and other top-drawer Chardonnays, in 14 4/5 oz. (420 ml.) glasses or my 17 oz. red wine glasses.
The largest glasses are reserved for fine Burgundy. I use 26 1/2 oz. (750 ml.) glasses, but I’ve seen Burgundy glasses as large as 31 3/4 oz. (900 ml). But the subject of Burgundy glasses actually brings us more into the realm of shape than size. Burgundy is a somewhat delicate and quite aromatic red. Like Bordeaux, Burgundy is typically consumed from glasses created specifically for it. Burgundy glasses are balloon shaped: very broad in the middle, but tapering up to a somewhat narrow opening at the top of the glass. The broad center provides sufficient surface area for the bouquet to float up from, while the narrow top keeps the amazing Burgundy bouquet in the glass, preventing it from dissipating so that you can enjoy it fully.
Another kind of uniquely shaped wine glass is the champagne flute. They have slender, tall bowls to decrease the chance of their bubbles dissipating too quickly. Tulip shaped Champagne flutes are preferable to straight-sided or trumpet-shaped ones due to the fact that, as with wine glasses in general, the narrower mouth helps to concentrate the bouquet inside the glass. Speaking of shape in general, I prefer diamond-shaped glasses. They are attractive and a good point of the diamond shape is that it makes it easy to see where the widest point of the glass is, which is also the point to which a wine glass ought to be filled.
As for design, traditional, long-stemmed glasses are definitely preferable to stemless glasses. The stem is there for a number of very good reasons. First of all, by lifting the bowl up off the table, it lets you see the wine’s color. Second, it makes it much easier to swirl the wine in the glass to oxygenate it and get an idea about how much body the wine has as it drips back down the sides of the glass. Third, it is a practical handle which stops your hand warming up the wine, and your fingers smudging up the glass.
Weight and balance are also important considerations because you want a glass that feels good to hold. This is obviously subjective, but I myself don’t like heavy wine glasses, so I would rather use ones made from thin glass. A thin rim is also nicer to sip from. There’s one disadvantage to thin glass though, and it’s a big one: it chips and breaks easily. A way to avoid this problem is to buy glasses reinforced with titanium rather than lead. Titanium wine glasses are not just much stronger than leaded ones, they are also lighter in weight and maintain their clarity much longer.
As far as material goes, you definitely want to go with high-quality Austrian or German crystal. Which is actually not as costly as it sounds. You can get beautiful, elegant machine-made crystal from big name makers at reasonable prices, especially if you compare prices on the Internet. Naturally, their top of the line hand blown glasses are to be very expensive, but it’s not necessary to break the bank when you consider that you can buy good glasses for much less, including the titanium ones.
Which brings us finally to aesthetics, the most subjective thing of all. It’s an essential one though simply because, after all, the complete function of nice wine glasses is to act as an elegant foil for whatever wine you happen to be imbibing, so aesthetics is every bit as important a consideration as functionality. Basically, I’d say decide how much you would like to invest in wine glasses and get the ones which you think are the nicest of those which don’t go over your budget.
You can, if you’re so inclined, purchase a unique size and shape of glass for every popular variety of wine, but that’s going overboard, I would say. I can’t see any real reason to purchase a special glass for Syrah, for example. If you’re having a topflight Syrah, such as a Hermitage or Penfolds Grange, you can serve it in Bordeaux glasses. If it’s a more ordinary version of this popular varietal, you can simply use standard red wine glasses. The same applies for other powerful, full-bodied reds. In the case of a top-drawer Pinot Noir, you had best use Burgundy glasses because Burgundy is made with Pinot Noir grapes. If you’re having a more humble Pinot Noir, ordinary red wine glasses are a better choice due to the fact that the high-capacity Burgundy glasses could simply make the wine’s ordinariness that much more obvious.
As I see it, a full set of wine glasses should include normal red wine glasses (that can additionally be used as water goblets), Bordeaux glasses, Burgundy glasses, white wine glasses, (for Chablis and other top-drawer white Burgundies, you can use red wine or Bordeaux glasses), and champagne glasses. You may want to add a few specialty glasses to that list if you are a Brandy drinker or often enjoy dessert wines, but normally, you should be prepared for any contingency with these five types of wine glasses.
If you want to learn more about wine tasting, or wine tours in the Santa Barbara wine country, then go ahead and visit Eric Hilton’s website, Santa Barbara Wine Tasting.
Technorati Tags: california, food and beverage, home and family, Wine
