Does glass type really matter?

Might be a bad question, but, I've been reading about different wines and and came across a few sites that said for the most enjoyment, red wine should be served in 1 glass and white in another. I know champagne needs a different glass. So question is, has anyone noted a different flavor in wine based on a different glass?

[Robin Garr]

Fascinating question, Joshua, and one that I'll bet brings out a range of replies. One major wine-glass company, Riedel, makers of large, delicate and extremely pricey glasses, advocates a different shape for every grape variety. Back in the '90s, I had an interview with Georg Riedel, an extremely persuasive salesman for his own product. We tasted through a lot of wines, he was an amusing and charming gent, and I left thinking, "Damn! They DO work." Over time, though, I'm less persuaded.

I do think that a relatively large "tulip" shape glass is best for swirling and sniffing - and those two things ARE important - and that good, thin crystal adds a sense of luxury that can enhance the experience. A stem is traditional, although I have to admit that I enjoy the "O" glasses that are full, stylish bowls but sit on a flat base like a tumbler with no stem.

I also have to admit that I've had some of my most enjoyable meals with wine at Italian trattorias and Greek tavernas where the wine is served in squat tumblers.

So I guess the best answer is, "It's complicated," and best not to worry too much about it, but good to have some decent stemware around - doesn't have to be wallet-breaking, but fair-sized and elegant to enhance your wine experience.

Personally, I'm happy with one size fits all, but it's true that a lot of restaurants will give you a larger glass for red than for white.

[Jenise]

Joshua, Robin and I are in some disagreement here. What I know we don't disagree on though is that it's very personal. Depending on your tasting ability and the kinds of wines you drink, you'll find differences that matter a lot--or not. Mind you, I'm no scientist, but I'll try to explain to you in my girl-way what I've experienced.

So, on the one hand, I do think Riedel goes overboard--you don't need 18 different glasses for 18 different grapes--but glass shape really does affect how wine tastes. It does that by capturing a wine's aroma in the bowl of the glass and changing, with slope and volume, the order/distance between smell and taste. An oversimplification, but the smaller the glass, the shorter that distance and the less you smell, and the opposite is true. Expand the surface area, and you expand the opportunity for more aroma and the more you smell, the more you taste.

Ever had a bad cold where everything tastes bland? That's happens not because your tongue is out of order, but because your sense of smell is AWOL and not doing it's half of the job. If you can't smell, you can't taste much.

Let me give you a true story from my own life. Once upon a time when I knew a whole lot less than I know now, I opened a bottle that had some off odors and we found it undrinkable. Yet, we'd previously enjoyed bottles of that same wine, were familiar with the producer, etc. We knew it should have been better. So I set it aside for another day and opened something else. A few days later my husband was working at his desk late one evening and asked for a glass of wine. So I decided to check on that opened bottle, and I poured it into a glass and thought wow, it's good now. However it was a different glass (much larger) than the first time we tried it, so, curious, I poured some in that same first glass and whoa, there was that bad odor. So I took a glass like the first night's attempt in to my husband and said what to do you think. He tasted and declared it undrinkable. All weird smell, no flavor. So I went back to the kitchen and moved that same pour into a medium sized glass larger than the original but smaller than the one I'd just liked, and took that back to him without telling him it was the same wine. This was a better wine, he said, but he still wasn't excited about it. So I went back to the kitchen and moved the same pour into the big Cabernet style glass and took that one back to him. Verdict? Good wine, he'd have more of that! THAT'S how much difference a glass size and shape can make.

I would highly recommend that you do some Thrift Shop action there in Iowa--for very little money, you can pick up a variety of different sizes and shapes to test your everyday wine in and compare it to what you've been drinking out of and see what differences you find.

p.s. some of us don't agree that whites should always be drunk ice cold or out of smaller glasses. You'll find them generally served that way in restaurants, but a white wine can be more expressive in a bigger glass.

[David M. Bueker]

Opinions are like wine glasses - there's way too many of them.

While I do find difference from glass to glass, I have managed to largely survive using the same glass (the Riedel Zin/Chianti/Riesling) for just about everything, including Champagne! It's a great, all-purpose glass. Spiegelau offers a similar glass for less money. Schott-Zweisel offers a similar glass that is harder to break. I have a whole range of glasses for different wine types, but 90% of the time stick with the one shape.

What this really says (as far as I am concerned) is that you should find a glass you like, and use it. If you like different glasses for different wines then go for it.

Jenise's reply is similar to what I would say - glass shape makes a difference, but, assuming it's a tulip shaped glass, shape makes only a small difference. Size matters a lot though.

For the majority of at-home drinking, I settled on Riedel Burgundy stems. They have a broad bottom, so the wine has a lot of surface area exposed in the glass. The top is relatively small, so the aroma stays in the glass. For most wines, I think this is the ideal situation. I do have some smaller glasses, which I use for very old wines that might fade too fast with a lot of air contact, and also for sparkling wines, which lose their fizz too fast in a large glass. I also have some inexpensive glasses I can use for an outdoor party without fear of breakage.

I always use stemware. The stem is not for style - it is part of the utility of the glass. It's something to hold, so you're not heating up the wine with your fingers through the thin glass while you're holding it. When I go to a restaurant and they're serving wine in a tumbler, I order something else. Tumblers fail as wine glasses for three reasons. They're not tulip shaped, so they don't hold aroma. They're always filled too full for me to be able to swirl, so there's no way to develop that aroma in the first place. And, they don't have anywhere for me to hold the glass without heating up the wine. If the restaurant thinks so little of their wine service that they serve in tumblers, I think they haven't earned their large price markup and I order something else. Hopefully their food makes up for it!

Riedel glasses are expensive, but a tip - I have a friend in the restaurant business who got me a case of Riedel's restaurant series glasses, which are indistinguishable to me from what they sell consumers, but the pricing is much lower. The packaging is more spartan, and I have to buy them 12 at a time, but the price is no more than I would pay for four consumer glasses of the same type, and now I have plenty, so an occasional broken glass is not something I have to cry about.

lotta good answers here to a very good question..Key will be to find what works best for you..Have been to some restaurants where wine was served in jelly jars..and it was fine..Before I got terribly geeky at home, I drank a number of wines from highball glasses..worked quite nicely from my point of view.
Currently I tend to drink my reds and chardonnay based whites from a large glass..I prefer smaller glasses for my other whites as well as for roses...Flutes are fine for bubblies but small wine glasses work well here as well..While I currently use sturdier glasses, Ikea makes some very serviceable wine glasses that are inexpensive..have not broken too many of them over the years and neither has my daughter ..we bought a bunch of them together when we were furnishing her apartment a number of years ago when she was in college.

We use one pair of glasses 80% of the time, and another for 10% of the time. The other ten percent consists of Champagne flutes, and a choice of about 30 others for "special occasions."

Another vote for the Chianti/Riesling glass, usually flutes for sparkling wines. Needles to say port has its own glass .

I use the Riedel Vinum Syrah glass for "great" red wines and a Riedel Chardonnay glass or similar Spiegelau for "great" whites, but I think larger glasses could be advantageous for those whites. For "everyday" wines I use, for reds, a coarser glass of similar shape to the Syrah and, for whites, some nice tulip shaped plain crystals which were on offer very cheaply at a supermarket a few years ago. I don't use Riedel "everyday" because they are so easy to break. Flutes for bubbly, of course, but of different shapes and sizes, such has been the rate of breakage; for me bubbly is at least as good in the Chardonnay glass as in the flute.

As to whether the glass shape makes a big difference, I don't think so when it comes to the glasses which I own. A "great" wine in an "everyday" glass remains a "great" wine. However, we sometimes get invited to people who are very proud of glasses which I do find very unsuitable. The worst were blue triangular shaped and quite small glasses into which the hostess poured a lovely 1990 St.Emilion. But I could still tell that it was lovely.

Our Riedel sommelier glasses are stored at a place where we need a ladder to have access to them. If we open a special wine we use the ladder and think it is worth it.

Recently, my wife and I thought that for us using the Riedel glasses made more difference for Riesling (Rheingau glasses) and White Burgundy (Montrachet glasses) than for red wines where we are mostly satisfied with some "standard" Bordeaux or Burgundy glass. Maybe we just do not drink red wines where it matters

win_fried

I use the Riedel Vinum Syrah glass for "great" red wines...

I actually use that as my standard glass. I like the shape and the balance between the broader nose of the Burgundy glasses and the more square nose of the cabernet glasses. Strikes a good balance for allowing aromatic complexity but not letting the wines get lost. (Most of the wines I drink are not perfect Grand Cru burgundies so they don't need all the detailed exposure of some of those broader Burgundy/pinot noir glasses).

And I don't find the Vinum line to be too breakable. Of course it happens, but the Vitis line is finer and more prone to breakage.

Thanks every for the great answers. Currently I have the red wine glasses sold at Walmart decent sized bowl. I will definitely give some others a try.

Mother was a big Faustino fan but being Swiss she was quite keen on those green stemmed hock glasses that one still sees in parts of Germany. I had to educate her when I went to hotel school .

I am far from a discerning taster...as my better half says, I know what I like and that's about it. I basically have 2 kinds of glasses at home. Some Schott-Zweisel medium sized glasses and some flutes for bubbles. Works for us.

Best wishes

We use several different glasses basically for heavier and lighter reds and whites, i.e. a cab glass, a pinot glass, a chard glass and a riesling glass. We've found in taste tests that they do make a difference. However, using this many glasses can make you a little nuts and with breakage I find that I sometimes have trouble getting six of the same glasses on the table at once.

I've heard of a line of glasses by Andrea Immer Robinson, a master sommelier, called The One. It consists of a red wine glass and a white wine glass. Apparently these are becomming popular in restaurants and I've heard some good things about them. Does anyone own these glasses or have any experience with them?

I'm somewhat of a contrarian on the glass issue, even though I own a fair number of Riedel and Schott glasses. My everyday glass is an 8 oz. "red wine" model from Libbey. I tend to fill it only half way, but it still has a much smaller bowl and thicker rim than the crystal. The thing is, I'm not at all convinced that thin rims have any impact on the taste or aroma of the wine. Either way it's sticking into your lip. Thin rims are enjoyable for their own sake, much like one enjoys fine china, but also like fine china it doesn't affect the taste.

There are some exceptions. Like Jenise said, some wines really benefit from a ton of surface area to smell their best. Also, the tulip-shaped riesling glasses I have are really good at directing the wine to the back of the toungue, which is helpful if the wine is really, really acidic.

I tend to drink wines that are $20 or less, and for me the difference for most wines is so minor that my life is more pleasant when I can just chuck the thing in the dishwasher instead of having to hand-wash. Unfortunately, the glassware rack is only 8" / 20cm high so finding a stemmed glass that fits is a real challenge. Suggestions are welcome!