If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Photo by cmd-p @ Flickr
Wine glasses may be one of the most overlooked and misunderstood pieces of wine “stuff.” I see it all the time in restaurants when I order wine. The waiter brings me some small wine glass filled up almost to the top. It’s enough to drive a wine enthusiast crazy. Fortunately, there are plenty of restaurants that understand proper wine glasses and are not afraid to use them.
Budding wine enthusiasts need to understand what a good wine glass is as well, and they need to use them. As mentioned in an earlier lesson, almost all of what we perceive as flavors in wine are really the result of aromas we detect. Because aromas are central to the wine experience, it will help you greatly if you use a wine glass that focuses those aromas for you.
The best wine glass is one that features a good size tulip-shaped bowl (that’s what we call the part above the stem). You want it to be good sized so that you can pour four or five ounces of wine yet still have plenty of room to swirl the wine. (This is the primary fault that so many restaurant wine glasses have–the bowl is too small and filled too high. Any swirling usually ends up on me or my neighbor wearing the wine instead of me drinking it.)
The tulip-shape of the bowl is the other important characteristic: it directs the aromas up into an area just above and below the rim of the glass. Wine glasses without a tulip-shaped bowl scatter the aromas so they are harder to detect.
My own preference for wine glasses comes in the form of the Riedel Overture Bordeaux Magnum glass. [Disclosure: That link is an affiliate link to the glass at Amazon.com.] Although I have a variety of Riedel varietal-specific wine glasses (Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling/Chianti, Syrah, ice wine, Champagne flutes), I find that this particular wine glass has the right size and shape for most purposes. As I mention on the Marketplace page, there’s a reason so many wine tasting rooms use these glasses as their glassware.
Do you need to buy these specific wine glasses? No, definitely not. For some people they are a little pricey. Others may prefer to look at and hold the glasses in hand before making a buying decision. For folks in the U.S., you can find many Riedel glasses at Target Stores, which gives you a chance to check them out. There are also glasses made by Spiegelau (which is now owned by Riedel) and many other brands.
The name on the box of wine glasses is not as important as the size and shape. While the Riedel “O” and similar stemless wine glasses are trendy, I do not recommend them. You really want to keep your fingers and hand off of the bowl–the heat from your hand will transfer to the wine, and that can affect the taste of the wine. Thus, a stemmed glass is always preferable.
Where else can you buy wine glasses? The Wine Enthusiast catalog has an extensive selection of glassware. How easily they can ship outside the US is a good question. IWA also has a nice selection, but again they may be limited to shipping in the United States. If anyone outside the US has suggestions for good glassware sellers, please leave a note in the comments!
Your Homework: If you do not already have one, borrow a proper wine glass from someone. Pick up a bottle of Merlot or Pinot Noir (or any other wine for that matter) and pour a few ounces into the wine glass. Before you swirl, sniff, and sip, take a water glass with straight or flared sides (you can even use a jelly or mason jar) and pour roughly the same amount of wine into it. Swirl, sniff, and taste the wine from each glass. Do you notice a difference? How would you describe the difference between the two?
To turn in your homework, leave your observations and data on the wine as a comment to this post or over at our Facebook page.
More Wine For Newbies 101
Lesson 4–Evaluating wine, part 2
Lesson 3–Evaluating wine, part 1
Lesson 2–Learning to taste wine
Lesson 1–Is learning about wine difficult?
Technorati Tags:
wine, wine class, wine course, wine education, Riedel, wine glass, Spiegelau
Watching two wine enthusiasts do a blind tasting of Champagne might sound like as much fun as watching paint dry. Or maybe as exciting as watching golf on television. Of course, if you’ve played golf, you have a bit more appreciation for what’s on your TV. The same goes for wine tastings–if you have tried Champagnes (or any other wine for that matter) then watching experts go through the process is not as dull as it sounds to non-winos.
In lesson 3, we looked at one way to evaluate a wine. Of course, the most important evaluation is the simple question of whether you like the wine. A more descriptive evaluation, however, helps you explain why you liked a wine–or didn’t like it. As I’ve said many times before, being able to describe a wine also helps you find more wines that you like. Being able to walk into a wine shop and say, “I really like such-and-such. It was a nice, flavorful wine, it didn’t completely dry my mouth out, and it had good aromas. Do you have anything similar?” can really help you find more wines to try. 
One of the things I like about this form is that you can circle some of the descriptors. There is also enough space to write down things like aromas and flavors. To me, this helps take away some of the head-scratching I used to do when trying to write a tasting note. 
