Here's Looking Through You!

I recently talked with a loyal reader of this column who loves wine and suggested I write about wine glasses and how they play a role in the wine tasting experience. She like many of us, found out how the type of glass you drink wine from can enhance or detract from the taste.

Now I know this might sound a bit far fetched to some of you, but trust me it is true. There are wine glasses designed specifically for over 20 different varietals each with a stem, a foot and a bowl but with differences in their shape to capture the subtle characteristics of each wine. There are glasses designed for varietalsfrom Bordeaux, Burgundy and Chianti and everything in between. There is even an Oregon Pinot glass designed exclusively for Oregon Pinot Noir that boasts depositing the wine directly on to just the right spot on your tongue for the maximum appreciation of our most famous grape. And believe it or not it really does!

But for most of us it is cost prohibitive as well as space prohibitive to have 20 of more different wine glass designs.It is also unnecessary for everyday wine appreciation. Most of us would just like to have one or two good glasses that will work well for most varietals. I suggest investing in three styles of stemware. One for champagne, one for white wines and one for reds. Each of these glasses should be made of thin glass so it feels natural between your lips and they should have nice big bowls. Champagne flutes are long and narrow, designed to keep the bubbles bubbling for longer and to allow the wine to stay colder longer. White wine glasses too are shaped more narrow than red glasses, to account for the cooler serving temperature as well as to direct the aroma of the wine right up to your face.

An appropriate red glass will have a wider, more open bowl to allow for breathing and swirling and since reds are not served as cold as whites, less worry about maintaining a cold temperature.

Wine glasses should never be any other color than clear. Appreciating the differences in the array of wine colors is part of the wine tasting experience. Color can tell you a lot about a wine and if the glass has a colored bowl
or stem it alters the color of the wine. Stemless glasses have made a bit of a hit with some of our younger wineaux but they are absolutely not for me or for any of my wine friends. Keeping your hands off the bowl of the glass so as not to heat up your wine is absolutely critical in optimizing the nuances of each wine.

If you don’t believe this all makes a difference try the same wine served in two different glasses and see for yourself. Nothing takes a glass of wine from ordinary to extraordinary like drinking it at the correct temperature from a well designed vessel. Life is too short to drink bad wine. And it is too short to drink good wine out of crummy glasses. Cheers!