Choosing a wine is hard enough, even with the aid of websites or books out there to help. Choosing the right wine glasses to go with your wine sometimes seems much harder!The correct wine glass brings out all the best stuff in the right wine. Wine should be appreciated for its looks, its smell, and its flavour and so should be embraced by the eyes and nose as well as the mouth.
If you drink in a bistro or bar, the only choice you’re likely to be offered is “large or small”?Professor Claus J. Riedel (as in the famous glassmaker) who was the first glass designer to realise that wines are affected by the shape and size of the wine glasses from which they are drunk.That shape will determine the depth of the aroma for different wines or direct wine to specific parts of the tongue.Different shapes and sizes will enhance fruitiness and others will emphasize tannin. Some shapes will prevent Champagne from going flat.
Whatever wine glasses you choose, avoid the contemporary cone-shaped variety.It’s impossible to swirl the wine and the wide rim does nothing for appreciating the bouquet. There are those who claim that fine lead crystal wine glasses are the only way to appreciate the aroma, colour and taste of a fine wine.Lead crystal wines glasses are beautiful, but can be expensive (unless you get them cheaper via an Internet retailer) and if you can afford them, they are well worth the extra.
So, do you really need dozens of different wine glasses and other specialist glasses such sherry glasses to be socially acceptable? No, of course not! There are four basic shapes that are good to have in any serious wine drinker’s cupboard:
1. Good all-round white wine glasses should have a wide bowl and narrow rim.
2. Decent all-purpose red wine glasses should be shorter and wider than the white wine glass to allow better swirling and more surface area for maximum air contact – especially for bringing out the flavours and aromas in well-aged red wines.
3. Off-dry to sweet wines (like Piesporter, Liebfraumilch, Riesling, etc) should be served in glasses with a slightly flared rim. This shape guides the wine to the “sweetness” area of the palate.
4. The classic champagne flute is the best style for sparkling wines as the long, narrow body concentrates the bubbles, intensifying the aroma and taste.
