A Glass Is A Glass Is A Glass

Well, not really – when you’re drinking wine, or any other beverage for that matter, the shape of the glass does make a difference. Most of us grew up knowing that you generally put Brandy in a snifter of some kind, yes? The reason was that the aromas could be concentrated and the experience better overall. In the restaurant world, snifters were fairly thick glass so that bartenders could put the glass over a cup of really hot water to warm the liquid and make it even more aromatic. Carefully hand-blown or thick-cut crystal – Cognac glasses came in so many different styles and sizes.

It took a while, but wine glasses eventually came around to being varietal-specific. Once there were simple Champagne, Burgundy or Bordeaux glasses, as well as smaller glasses for Port or Sherry, otherwise, there weren’t too many options. Now one can buy glasses for any beverage you can think of, and the marketing arms of the major glass vessel companies will have you believe theirs are the only ones appropriate for your particular beverage of choice, of course.

But let’s step back a little bit in time. Glass had been made back in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, but it wasn’t until the Romans invented the art of blowing glass that the use of glass for drinking vessels became more common. Following the great Fall of the Roman Empire, this practice became scarcer, and folks turned to silver, pewter and other materials. Silver, however, made wine taste metallic, so glass came back into play. The 13th Century saw the rise of glass artisans in Italy – particularly Murano where the perfected the art of Cristallo – using quartz pebbles instead of sand which created unwanted impurities.

In Jolly Olde England, around the mid-17th Century, there was a shortage of wood – they’d cut down ancient forests for building of homes and the mighty ships that took their bravest around the world to pillage and conquer and… well that’s another story altogether. Coal! Wonderful coal – in abundance, led to hotter furnaces. George Ravenscroft experimented with flint and lead oxide, creating a patented process of making lead crystal that lead the way to today’s modern glassware. Now glasses could be made en masse. For the most part, glasses were smaller then, but soon grew in size and holding capacity.

We went through the various design modalities – Arts and Crafts, Art Déco, Art Nouveau, Scandinavian Modern and of course, in between, all manner of amazing artists who manifested pure design magic. And in steps the Riedel Glass company based in Austria, who have been around the glass world since the late 1700’s. It wasn’t until the mid 1970’s that the modern Riedel glassware came to the forefront. They truly perfected the art of creating stemware specifically for various wines, and indeed, other beverages. They also created some of the loveliest decanters one could imagine.

So now we have numerous glass companies specifically focused on wine – Spiegelau, Zalto, Eisch, Zwiesel and others, ranging in price from not too much to exorbitant prices – careful how you wash that Zalto at $90 per stem!

But – why so many shapes and sizes? The answer is fairly simple – wines have very specific aromatics, and contingent upon your level of wine awareness and olfactory abilities, it is possible to differentiate varietal-driven aromas from one glass to another. Big reds – your cabs, Zins, Malbecs, etc. all need a bigger bowl and larger opening for the wines to open up better through more air contact with the wine, and also to allow one’s nose to be deeper into the glass. Whites tend to be more delicate, so the bowl is more defined – with a smaller opening – allowing for the acidity and crispness to be more concentrated into the nose and also allowing for the coolness to be maintained a bit longer.

All that said, the shape of a glass really doesn’t change the actual flavor of the wine. For those who take wine a tad more seriously, it’s really ALL about the aromatics. 80% of flavor, or the ability to taste something comes from the smell. I have sat through numerous Riedel comparison tastings, where various wines were poured into a “Joker” or ordinary glass and the wines then poured into varietal-specific glasses. For the beginner wine lover, it takes a while to get the differences, but after a while, there you have it, incremental differences may not change your mind about whether or not you like the wine, but at least you can see why companies like Riedel have made millions in designing glassware for the wine world.

So… I wouldn’t race out and buy a collection of glasses that take up a lot of space and are also prone to breakage. One can simply buy All Purpose (AP) glasses that will happily fulfil your needs and still allow you to enjoy your favorite wines of choice. Just find good Burgundy and Bordeaux styles and you’ll be set. And with Champagne? Put aside the narrow flutes! And definitely never ever serve good bubbles in the coupe style glass. Most all Champagne houses now serve their bubbles in Chardonnay glasses. The bubbles will still be concentrated, yet the opening of the bowl will allow you to put your nose in far enough to enjoy the delicate aromatics and acidity. A flute will certainly keep the effervescence going for longer, but if you’re only enjoying a little bit of glorious bubbles, then a white wine glass will give you far more olfactory pleasures. As for me, I sometimes don’t care what glass I have for Champagne, as long as there’s plenty of it – if fact, give me it in a glass slipper!