When you go out for dinner at your local restaurant, or even when you’re on an online wine website shopping around, you’re bound to see more than one style of wine glass. At first glance, it’s easy to assume that different wine glass shapes and sizes are merely a distinction across brands. However, size matters. As does the style.
Why Do Size and Shape Matter?
If you’re wondering why your friend who purchased red wine has a different shaped glass to yours filled with white wine, it’s not just what the bartender grabbed first. Believe it or not, the size and shape of the wine glass helps to accentuate the flavours of various wines. What’s more, there’s a complex science which determines the exact amount of aroma permeating from the glass, as well as how much air to which the wine is exposed.
What Wine Glass Do I Need for White Wine?
Most white wines require chilling – either in a fridge or a wine cooler while it’s sitting at your table at a restaurant. Once it’s in a glass, however, the chilling effect starts to wear off, and the flavour and aromatics can begin to change. To avoid this, white wine glasses are created in such a way as to keep the wine cooler for longer. They tend to be slimmer and smaller, while also shaped to allow the aroma to hit your nose with each sip.
What Wine Glass Do I Need for Red Wine?
If you’re shopping on an online wine website for red wine, you may as well add wine glasses to your shopping list. However, make sure they are suitable for red wine. The perfect wine glass for red wine tends to have a shorter, wider bowl. The reason for this is that it enables you to get the full sensory experience. You can breathe in its rich aroma as you drink it. What’s more, the wide bowl shape also helps to aerate the wine as there is more room for you to swirl it around in the glass.
What About an “All Purpose” Glass?
If you’re not much of a wine drinker, or you’ll be serving a large number of guests and don’t know everyone’s preference, all-purpose glasses are quite popular. They tend to be very versatile, large, made of glass, and are a hybrid of red and white glasses. They are broader than a white wine glass but shorter than a red wine glass.
Champagne Flutes
Not everyone indulges in champagne, but when you do, it’ll most likely be from a champagne flute. Champagne flutes are thin, long, and elegant, but their elegance is not the only reason for using them. Having a narrow and tall glass enables the sparkling aspect and bubbles to remain intact. What’s more, the bubbles are pushed up for a more desirable presentation.
Take a look through your glassware cupboard. Do you have white wine glasses, red wine, or all-purpose? Did you know there was a difference? Try using the correct glass for your wine of choice and notice a difference in presentation, aroma, and flavour.