Let's talk wine glasses. Sure, you can always drink straight from the bottle (we've all been there). But the best way to fully enjoy wine is from the proper glass. But the world of wine glasses is complex, confusing, and can be as overwhelming as the wine itself. Anyone that has shopped for wine glasses knows what we're talking about. But it doesn't need to be that difficult. Which is why this blog post is dedicated to three most important wine glasses and why it even matters at all.
All wine glasses have one key thing in common: a goblet on a stem. Not only does this look chic and sophisticated, it's also functional. When you hold your glass by the stem, you won't accidentally warm the wine with your hands, which could change the taste (we'll cover more about optimal drinking temperature in a future blog post). And then the goblet allows the wine to develop better. Since we can only taste five different flavours with our tongue (sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami), we actually perceive much more through our noses. So by filling the goblet halfway, the wine has a larger surface to release its aromas. And the goblet gets narrow at the top to ensure all those fantastic aromas funnel towards your nose. The aromas are further enhanced when you swirl the wine in the glass. So while the goblet might be quite large, it's not designed to be filled to the brim, but rather to capture and collect the aromas of the wine.
The Three Main Types Of Wine Glasses:
The Champagne Flute: This glass is suitable for all sparkling wines and is fancy yet functional. The champagne flute has a small surface area to ensure that the bubbles (ie the best part) don't leave the sparkling wine too quickly. Most flutes are also slightly roughened at the bottom, which helps more of those magical bubbly pearls rise to the top.
The White Wine Glass: The goblet of a white wine glass is usually somewhat smaller than that of a red wine glass because the aromas of a lighter white wines can escape too quickly in a glass that is too big.
The Red Wine Glass: This sexy glass with its extra large goblet is eye catching but also functional for strong and flavourful red wines. A small glass can kill some of those beautiful aromas, but a large goblet has enough space to develop and present all the complex red wine flavours.
WM Lifehack:
If the right glasses are not within reach, a “standard glass” will work with this simple trick. For white wine, fill the glass about three quarters full. Which artificially shrink the cup - mimicking a white wine glass. With red, fill the glass to only a quarter of the way - giving the wine more room. And sparkling can go in anything - if you drink it quickly.;)
