Choosing the proper wine for a meal may seem to be the difficult part, but it’s not the end of the road for choices. Once you have the entire menu set, you need to select your glass. While you can pour milk, juice, or soda into whatever glass or mug suits your fancy, serving wine is, of course, more complicated. (Would less be expected from any subject prized by the French?) There is, fortunately, logic to the madness.
Red Wine
Red Wine in a Glass by Oncle Tom
Red wine is properly served in a wide glass with a shallow bowl. This may seem silly, as a glass should never be filled more than halfway with any sort of red wine, but there is that strange logic within the practice. Red wine needs air to be experienced at its fullest. It needs to breathe, far more than any other sort of wine. The wide bowl allows more surface area and air exposure. The larger bowl also means more glass is in contact with the wine. Since red wine is served warmer than white or sparkling wines, the larger amount of glass transmits more of the drinker’s body heat to the wine itself.
Glasses must never be filled too high with red wine because of that stereotypical wine taster move: the swirl. It’s not just a flourish meant to impress, but it brings even more of the wine in contact with the air. Alcohol evaporates very quickly. By encouraging more of that alcohol to vaporize, flavor compounds are carried into the air and into the drinker’s nose. The human sense of smell is more nuanced than the sense of taste; and as every person discovers upon developing a cold, smell is an enormous part of the sense of taste. The shape of the glass allows red wine to be presented at its fullest by allowing these strange but immensely practical rituals to take place.
White Wine
White Wine in a Glass by Danielle Bauer
The white wine glass is similar in shape to the red wine glass, but one cannot be substituted for the other. The white wine glass has a smaller bowl and a smaller opening. White wine does not need to breathe for its flavors to come out properly and also needs to be served at a cooler temperature than red wine. The smaller bowl ensures that less glass—and less heat from the drinker’s hand—will be transferred to the wine. The smaller opening can also aid in holding out some of that warmth, since there is less surface area for heat transfer.
Sparkling Wine
Sparkling Wine in a Glass
Champagne and its compatriots Prosecco and Cava are the classic image of celebration, as are those tiny glasses in which they are served. The glasses are designed for the needs of these wines. All sparkling wines must be served chilled. By having a longer stem, the drinker will not hold the bowl section of the glass directly. This will greatly delay the rate at which the wine will rise to room temperature. The long narrow sides help the bubbles climb the sides, which is one of the main reasons for drinking these wines in the first place: those lovely bubbles. A glass which does not promote those is not worth using.
Dessert and Fortified Wines
Wine Glass by agelakis
Both of these wine categories are less common than their predecessors, but they are still quite common. Dessert wines are sweeter, thus their name; fortified wines are higher in alcohol, which was originally added to these wines as a method of preservation. Since both are served in much smaller quantities than other wines, their glasses are smaller. The bowl and opening of a glass will be narrower, allowing the wine to flow more slowly.
A great number more glasses exist for use at the bar, but for the purposes of wine, only a few are necessary to keep in mind. The most critical fact to keep in mind is that wine glasses are not interchangeable. It is one thing to take a bottle of a new wine home and discover you do not have the right glass, another to host a dinner party without the right ones. Red wine served in a white wine glass will simply not taste as good as if served in its proper vessel. For your own taste buds and enjoyment, always use the correct glass. If the French can agree on a glass, it’s certainly a rule to mind.
There would be very little need for help with alcoholism if only everyone drank more responsibly.
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