Choosing Glassware

by The Wine Guy_R, Craig Decker

 

During my wine tastings, I am always asked, “Does the type of glassware really make a difference?”  Well, YES.  Here’s a little exercise to try on your friends.  Pictured to the left is a Waterford Crystal Wine glass similar to one your Mom may have used in her fine china settings.  As you can see, the shape of the glass is like an upside-down teardrop.  To the right you will see a 22oz Bordeaux/Cabernet glass by Riedel (pronounced Riedel like needle), in more of a bowl shape.

 

     

 

 

Pour the same bottle of red wine into both glasses and ask some unsuspecting guest to taste each glass.  Ask them what tastes different between the two.  Usually the response is the 22 oz glass shows more fruit smell and seems to have more character.  This is the response you would expect in this test and here’s why.

 

First, the shape of the glass directly affects where the wine lands on your tongue.  Where the wine lands on your tongue ultimately affects how the wine tastes.  The image below shows the regions of the tongue that are responsible for the four taste profiles, bitter, sour, sweet and salty.

 

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Secondly, the shape of the glass also affects the ability to swirl.  What differences does swirling make?  I’m glad you asked.  Swirling allows for oxygen to enter the wine, allowing the fragrances of the wine to bloom.  This blooming of fragrance of the wine suddenly becomes very apparent when you swirl and then smell the wine.  Here’s a hint…try swirling your glass with one hand while covering the glass with your other hand…then smell.  Why is smell important?  If plug your nose and eat an onion can you taste it?  The answer is, for the most part, no.  When you remove the sense of smell it affects your ability to taste.  So if you can smell more of the wine, you can taste more of what it has to offer!  What does this all have to do with glassware?  The shape of the 22oz Riedel glass is conducive to swirling, where as when you try to swirl Mom’s Waterford glass, it will land most of the contents on the table.

 

One final note…wine does not necessarily taste the same way that it smells.  Just because you like the smell, doesn’t mean you’ll like the taste of the wine, and just because you don’t like the smell doesn’t mean you won’t like the taste of the wine.  I have had plenty of wines that smell horrible and taste great (less filling) sorry wrong article.

 

Both of the top glassmakers in the word for wine consumption, Riedel and Spiegelau, create glassware designed to deliver the wine to a particular area of the tongue that is best suited for tasting that type of wine.  I recommend the 22oz glass for the all purpose glass if only one is what your going to buy or can afford. Spiegelau glassware is almost identical to Reidel and at half the cost.

 

 

¹ A Matter of Taste (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)