Tulleeho.com - WINE - Buying glasses


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Buying Glasses :

Still wines

As in several other sections of this feature here too, the wine glass you choose to buy / drink your wine from depends upon the extent to which you're steeped in wine lore. On one hand you have Georg Riedel from Austria, who is a firm believer that wines made from different grape varietals should be drunk from glasses with different shapes, the theory being that the shape of the glass both dictates the way in which the aroma hits your nose as well as the way in which the drops of wine hit that "sweet spot" on your tongue. For e.g. for Bordeaux there may be a large tall glass with a slight taper.

A Riedel Bordeaux glass

A Riedel All Purpose Glass : The gourmet glass

On the other hand you have the school of thought, which believes in the APV (all purpose wine glass for the uninitiated). Riedel make a glass for them too, it's called the Gourmet glass

In general here are some of the guiding principles you should follow while buying wine glasses:

1. Make sure the glass is made from good quality lead crystal.

2. The glasses quality is also marked by its slenderness and by the number of facets you see reflected

3. The bowl of the glass should be round to bring the wine in contact with oxygen and thus release it's aromas.

4. Ideal bowl size is around 12 ounces (for red wine) and around 8 ounces (for white), so that you can safely fill 2/3ds in and swirl away to glory.

5. At the top it should taper inwards to prevent the aroma from escaping ·

6. Make sure that the stem of the glass is long and thin so that your hand doesn't inadvertently end up warming the bowl

7. Ensure that the rim is thin so that the wine flows smoothly on to your tongue.

Caring for your glasses

Wash them by hand, rinse thoroughly and dry with a cloth, which is free of lint. Make sure that the cloth has no scent from that flavoured Surf you bought last week. If need be, rinse the glass before using it, to save odours from wherever you're storing it to enter.

Sparkling wines

Sparkling wine should always be served in a flute as opposed to a saucer.

Champagne flute

Champagne saucer

The reason being that a flute preserves the bubbles (and the bouquet) whereas a saucer lets them dissipate quickly. The choice is clear. After all isn't it called bubbly for nothing.