How to Serve Wine in a Glass
The idea that different wines taste better when served in the proper glass seems a bit pretentious when you first hear about it. What could the size and shape of a glass possibly have anything to do with how a wine tastes? Beer tastes the same whether you serve it in a pilsner glass or drink it straight from the bottle, so why would wine be any different? Well, there actually are a lot of really good reasons for why wine tastes differently in different glasses. It mostly has to do with how the wine breathes and how your nose and palate receive the aromas that go along with the flavors of the wine. It sounds pretentious again, I know, but once you understand how wine reacts to its environment, you might better understand why the glass it is served in is very important to how it tastes.
Wine is not just meant for drinking. To truly appreciate the subtle qualities of each type of wine, you need to be able to see it, smell it, feel it, taste it, and consider its aftertaste. Choosing the right wine glass to go with the right wine is an important factor in being able to fully enjoy all of these qualities in bottle of wine. From inexpensive wine glasses that you can buy at any grocery store to handcrafted works of art that can cost more than the wine itself, there are a wide range of glasses to choose from. In the end though, it doesn’t really matter how much money you spend on the glass, but choosing the right size and shape of the glass does. Overall, there are three basic types of wine glasses to choose from that you can serve just about any kind of wine in properly.
Red wine glasses have a large round bowl shape, much like a fish bowl, that tapers in at the rim slightly. Good red wine glasses are usually 10-16 ounces in size. The large shaped mouth gives a red wine the opportunity to mix with the surrounding air, allowing it to breathe or mellow out a bit before drinking. Larger glasses are best for red wines so that it can be swirled around without fear of spilling it all over the place. This swirling doesn’t just make you look like you know what you’re doing, but it actually serves to release the aromas of the wine. The wide mouth also gives your nose room enough to smell the wine as you’re drinking it. This combination of taste and smell makes the wine more flavorful and satisfying.
White wine glasses are usually described as tulip shaped. The rim of the glass is tapered in slightly and is usually 8-14 ounces in size. Like the red wine glass, the tapering of the rim allows the aromas of a white wine to be directed towards the nose in order to more fully experience the flavors of the wine. It’s not generally as important to swirl white wine as it is to swirl red wine because it’s usually less harsh and doesn’t need to mix with the air as much to release its full potential.
Sparkling wine flutes are taller and thinner than red or white wine glasses, but it’s very important that the rims are tapered inwards. You may see some wine flutes that have a decorative rim that flares out, but this causes your sparkling wine to lose its carbonation more quickly because of too much exposure to the surrounding air. So, when serving champagne or sparkling wine, make sure the glass bowl is tall and thin at the top to keep the bubbles popping longer.
No matter what kind of wine glasses you choose to use, you want to make sure they are clear rather than colored and don’t have any unnecessary decorative etchings on the outside of the bowls. Being able to see the colors of the wine is an important part of enjoying the overall experience of drinking wine. You also want to make sure you fill your wine glasses to the proper levels. If it’s your intention to just get drunk off your wine, then you’ll probably want to fill it to the rim, but if you truly want to enjoy your wine more fully then there are some general rules of thumb to follow. Red wine glasses should be filled no more than half way and white wine glasses no more than a third of the way. This allows the wine drinker to swirl, smell, and taste the wine properly rather than wearing it. Sparkling wines flutes should only be filled half way in order to keep the bubbles from escaping and becoming flat.
Understanding how and why certain wine glasses go better with certain wines may not make you an instant wine expert, but it will make you look more like you know what you’re doing and soon you’ll be scoffing at all those other people who are still drinking wine out of kitchen glasses. It’s all part of the fun of enjoying wine!
