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Should You Buy Special Glasses To Serve Wine?
by Fairfax Tolman
http://www.ftwine.com
You've probably heard that the glass in which you serve a
wine can enhance its flavor. According to the experts at
Riedel Glass in Austria, the glass in which you serve a wine
can certainly enhance its enjoyment. The shape and
composition of every Reidel glass is specifically designed
to present a particular varietal wine at its best. The
Austrian family has been designing wine glasses since the
1950s, though they've been in the glass business since the
1700s.
The shape of the glass can subtly influence such things as
the layering of vapors released by the wine by funneling
those vapors and concentrating the ones that are give the
wine its characteristic notes. It can also direct the flow
of wine so that it touches the palate or tongue at the place
where those notes are most likely to be tasted.
Many of the experts ridicule the idea that a bordeaux should
only be served in a bordeaux glass and a chianti in a
chianti glass. They claim that outside of the general
guidelines for wine glasses, the shape of the glass makes
little difference to the flavor and bouquet of the wine.
Does it really make a difference? Riedel cites as evidence
that it does experiments carried out at their wine-tasting
labs, where renowned wine experts were served the same wine
in a variety of glasses and asked to rate and identify the
wine. In most cases, the oenophiles were convinced that
they'd been served completely different varieties of wine.
Size is the single most important factor in choosing a good
wine glass. Bigger is better - 20 ounces is the ideal size
for most wines. In any case, a wine glass should never be
filled to the brim. Allow at least 2/3rds the height of the
glass for the vapors to collect and settle.
As a very broad example, the company explains how when a
person takes a sip of wine from a glass with a broad mouth
he will naturally lower his head, tilting it forward. This
affects how the wine is taken into the mouth and the area of
the tongue where it first touches. By contrast, a glass with
a narrow mouth forces the person to lift their head and tilt
it back, thereby influencing the way that the wine is
smelled and tasted.
Red wines should be served in glasses with wide bowls,
narrow mouths and long stems. The width of the bowl and the
quicker taper to the narrow mouth allows the character of
the wine to collect and settle so that the 'bouquet' is
delivered to the nose before the liquid hits the tongue.
Serve red wines in large glasses, with wide bowls and narrow
lips - the classic 'tulip' shape. Their full body benefits
from the openness to concentrate the vapors.
White wines should be served in taller, narrower glasses to
enhance their more delicate bouquet. Sparkling wines like
champagne should be served in tall, narrow flutes to
preserve their effervescence. The less surface area of the
wine exposed to air, the less of the bubbly you lose.
If you can only choose one glass, then the glass that you
choose should be a Bordeaux or Chardonnay glass, which are
nearly identical in shape. The differences are so minute
that even the most educated palate won't be able to tell any
difference in flavor or bouquet in wine served in either
glass.
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