Summer is over and if you're like us, you probably need to restock your glass cabinet. A good wine glass can really enhance the enjoyment of wine and these days one can find some wonderful glassware without spending a fortune.
A good glass should have a tulip shape and a long stem. The shape of the glass: narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, will help bring out the aromas in the wine. While the stem gives your hand a nice resting place so that you can gently swirl the wine and further release some of the wine’s bouquet. The stem also helps keep the heat of your hand away from the wine as warming the glass can increase the alcoholic flavors.
A set of all purpose wine glasses and some Champagne flutes are really the only styles that one needs for their cabinet. A Bordeaux or Burgundy sized glass can be used for both your white and red wines. While the Champagne flute's design is especially helpful in keeping your bubbly effervescent longer. If you want to expand your collection a little more, the next step would be a smaller glass for white wine and then a cordial glass for port of desert wine.
Riedel is the current authority on Wine glasses, although Speigelau and Ravenscroft are quickly nipping at Riedel’s heels; offering quality stemware at a fraction of the price.
Deals on non-name-brand glassware can be found everywhere - especially Crate & Barrel.
For something a little fancier, but still affordable, we just found a six-pack of Spiegelau Spiegelau Vino Grande Magnum Bordeaux Glasses for only $45.00. At this price we won’t jump when one is accidentally broken.
• Glass shape affects wine's chemistry (New Scientist, August 28, 2002)
Anyone tried the Schott-Zwiesel Diva series? They've got titanium in the glass and are supposedly far sturdier than your average Riedel. Are they also good glasses for the wine snob?
In my ever-humble opinion, newfangled champagne flutes ought to be shunned at all costs in favor of the champagne bowl, and I've made my ever-humble case for this in the pre-kitchen days at Apartment Therapy... http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/glassware-ceramic/riedel-o-series-wine-glasses-002479
Also, all champagne should be pink... haha!
Please don't say summer is over. It's not over until fall starts, and fall has not started. Labor Day is just a convention, not the turning point of the season.
I'm going to the beach this weekend.
Sorry Paul but I completely disagree with you. Champagne & wine bowls are good if your only interest is design but they are in fact terrible for the wine, especially for Champagne. A bowl used for red wine in winter is acceptable, even white wine is okay but this glass destroys the delicate structure of Champagne and I do not recommend it.
I used to think that wine glasses needed a stem, but then I fell in love with stemless wine glasses. My favorite (and apparently Oprahs too because she supposedly mentioned stemless champagne glasses on one of her favorites show) are by Deborah Ehrlich. They are the thinnest, most simply and poetically shaped glasses I have ever seen. There is a raw edge, so your lips get woken up even before they taste the wine. Moss sells them, as well as Takashimaya. Deborah, the glass designer, lives in upstate NY. I'll never go back to stems.
Agreed that wineglasses without stems are a great design - BUT
doesn't wine glasses without the stem transfer the body heat to the wine when we are having it and this alters the taste of the wine ???
Sorry Jenny, but you're completely mistaken.
My statement about the champagne bowl was only for champagne (not for red or white wine), and I stand by it. The bowl has a much nicer design, and if you're going to have a party where the champagne lasts long enough to can sit around admiring its structure, I think I'll have to send my regrets. Champagne is made for drinking at celebrations and living in the moment, not book club discussions. The very design of the champagne bowl promotes this outlook on life. I'd advise you to have one last glass in your flutes, and then break them.
i've never been a fan of the aesthetics of the champagne bowl. dunno why. i just think champagne flutes are prettier. i don't drink anything fancy enough to make my choice based on what's "best" for the wine (and i don't think most people do, either -- i mean, seriously, the warmth of your hand is not going to perceptibly alter your $8 shite chardonnay). i just like the flute best, aesthecially.
as for non-sparkling, i follow pretty much the same ethos. i have never spent more than $20 on a bottle of wine in my life. i'm not really at the level of connoiseurship where the shape of my glass is going to affect anything. lately i've taken to drinking wine out of juice glasses, and i'm contemplating a set of jelly jars.
Paul, You misread my comments and are actually agreeing with me through different wording.
My point was simply that if your concern is design and not the wine then the bowls are fine & pretty but, if you are like me and the wine is the most important element then the bowls will destroy the wine through too much heat and a poor shape.
I do enjoy the occassional simpler wine ( a table wine, rose or inexpensive sparkling) in a stemless glass for the purpose of aesthetic. In these moments I disregard the potential of the wine and opt for design and frivolity.
Unfortunately I will never break my stems and will always feel sad when I attend a party and someone serves me good wine in stemless glasses. Then again, wine is my life study, so I take this a bit more seriously than others.
Keep your wine stems... I wouldn't drink red or white from a stemless glass either, unless I was in a blue-collar Europeanish frame of mind... but the champagne flutes have got to go.
The Schott-Zwiesel Tritan (Diva and Forte) glasses are great. However, before you buy the Diva glasses, make sure that you check the measurements -- they are very tall! I found the Forte glasses to be more manageable.
Has anyone tried drinking wine from an oversize wine glass? They are perfect for young wines that need a little breathing room. I personally prefer oversize goblets. They work well with white and red wine and leave plenty of room for the swirl. For bold, young, red wines that have a high acid content, i prefer oversize balloon goblets. The shape of the bowl will allow the musty, acidic characteristics to escape leaving behind the fruity characteristics of red wine and it never hurts to decant the wine first.
so i guess drinking directly out of the bottle is out of the qestion.