Selecting the proper wine glasses entails six points of consideration:size, shape, design, weight, material and aesthetics. The size of the glass is determined by by which sort of wine you plan to enjoy from it. Typically red wine glasses are larger than white wine glasses, and those meant for top quality wines are bigger than those utilized for more pedestrain wines.
In my own case, I use a 17 oz.(480 ml.) capacity glass for ordinary red wines, and a 12 2/3 oz. (360 ml.) one for whites. If I’m serving Bordeaux, and similarly tannic, full-bodied, high quality reds, I use a 23 oz. (650 ml.) glass which was developed with Bordeaux particularly in mind. I of course don’t fill my Bordeaux, or any other wine glass, to the brim. For one thing, taking into consideration that a normal wine bottle only contains 750 ml. of wine, there wouldn’t be a whole lot remaining for everyone else to drink if I did, and for anotherreason, each the large size of the glass and the simple fact that it’s widest at its halfway point let the wine to “breathe” by affording a large surface area of wine to be in contact with the air in order to encourage oxidation. Oxidation aids in softening the tannins of a powerful red that may otherwise be overly harsh, and lets you experience to a greater extent the complexity and variety of flavors existing in a noble red.
White wine, on the other hand, has far fewer tannins, and usually doesn’t benefit from oxidation. A smaller glass is also more appropriate for whites simply because they are served below room temperature. Of course, it requires longer to drink a larger amount of wine, and you want to drink up each glass of white wine before it has a can get overly warm. One white wine that is an exception to these guidelines is top-notch white Burgundy, like Chablis or Montrachet. These very high quality whites do benefit from oxidation, and are best served at the temperatures of common red wines, from 55 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the quality level, I usually serve white Burgundy, and other top quality Chardonnays, in 14 4/5 oz. (420 ml.) glasses or my 17 oz. red wine glasses.
The largest glasses are usually 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 topic of Burgundy glasses in fact brings us more into the realm of shape than size. Burgundy is a rather delicate and very aromatic red. similar to Bordeaux, Burgundy is usually drunk from glasses developed for it specifically Burgundy glasses are balloon shaped: really wide in the center, but tapering up to a somewhat narrow mouth. The broad middle provides sufficient surface area for the aroma to waft up from, while the narrow mouth keeps the terrific Burgundy bouquet in the glass, stopping it from dissipating so that you are able to fully appreciate it.
A different sort of uniquely shaped wine glass is the champagne flute. They have narrow, tall bowls to prevent their bubbles from dissipating too quickly. Tulip shaped Champagne flutes are better than straight-sided or trumpet-shaped versions due to the fact that, as with most wine glasses, the narrower mouth serves to focus the bouquet within the glass. Talking about shape in general, I prefer diamond-shaped glasses. They are attractive and a benefit of the diamond design is that it’s simple enough to see where the widest point of the glass is, which is also the point to which it ought to be filled.
As far as design goes, standard, long-stemmed glasses are certainly preferable to stemless glasses. The stem serves several critical functions. First, by lifting the bowl up off the table, it lets you see the color of the wine. Secondly, it makes it less difficult to swirl the wine in the glass to aerate it and get an insight into the degree of body the wine has as it drips back again straight down the sides of the glass. Thirdly, it’s a convenient handle which stops your your body heat heating up the wine, and your fingers smudging up the glass.
Weight and balance are also important considerations simply because you want a glass which feels good to hold. This is a highly subjective area, but I personally don’t like heavy wine glasses, so I prefer ones made of thin glass. A thin rim is also a lot more pleasant to sip from. There’s one drawback to thin glass though, that can cause inconvenience and added expense: it chips and breaks easily. A way to avoid this dilemma is to buy glasses reinforced with titanium rather than lead. Titanium wine glasses are not just far more sturdy than their leaded counterparts, they are also lighter in weight and maintain their clarity far better.
As for material, you absolutely should go with fine Austrian or German crystal. That’s really not as expensive as it sounds. You can get beautiful, classy, machine-made crystal from famous producers at good prices, in particular if you shop around on the Internet. Naturally, their top of the line hand blown glasses tend to be very pricey, but it’s not necessary to pay a fortune when you can get really good glasses for much less, including the titanium kind.
That brings us lastly to aesthetics, the most subjective topic of all. It’s an crucial one however due to the fact, in the end, the ultimate function of good wine glasses is to act as an classy foil for whatever wine you are having so aesthetics is every bit as big a thing to consider as functionality. Fundamentally, I’d say determine how much you wish to invest in wine glasses and get the ones which you believe are the nicest among the ones which fall within your budget.
You can, if you’re so inclined, buy a distinct size and shape of glass for every famous type of wine, but that’s overkill, in my opinion. I can’t see any reason to buy a unique glass for Syrah, for example. If you’re pouring a very high quality Syrah, like a Hermitage or Penfolds Grange, it’s best to serve it in Bordeaux glasses. If it’s a more everyday version of this well-known varietal, you can simply use everyday red wine glasses. The same goes for any other powerful, full-bodied red In the case of a high quality Pinot Noir, it would be wise to use Burgundy glasses due to the fact Burgundy itself is made with Pinot Noir grapes. If it’s a more ordinary Pinot Noir, ordinary red wine glasses are a better choice simply because the high-capacity Burgundy glasses will simply make the wine’s ordinariness more apparent.
In my opinion, a full set of wine glasses will include regular red wine glasses (which can additionally be utilized as water goblets), Bordeaux glasses, Burgundy glasses, white wine glasses, (for Chablis and other of the best white Burgundies, you can use red wine or Bordeaux glasses), and champagne glasses. You may wish to add some specialty glasses to the list if you are a Brandy drinker or in the habit of drinking dessert wines, but if not, you ought to be prepared for any contingency with these 5 types of wine glasses.
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