Section 1 – Choosing the Glassware
The best glasses for wine usually have a nice bowl shape where the opening of the glass is smaller than the widest part of the bowl.
Most wine-drinking guests are aware that wine tasted from a well-designed, correctly-sized glass tastes better than from any old glass in the cupboard. This is because a well-designed wine glass delivers the wine to the areas of the tongue and mouth that are the most sensitive to taste. As a result, one of the most common complaints about wine in restaurants, and even in some people’s homes, is the absence of good wine glasses. So what is a properly designed glass?
The typical wine glass is a “stretched egg” shape. A fundamental characteristic of this glass is that it’s opening, about 70% narrower than the widest diameter of the bowl, allows aromas to be concentrated in a more limited area. The opening is about the same diameter as the base of the stem.
Wine glassware to use for sparkling wines and dessert wines is different, but we will cover that in a subsequent lesson.