One of the great things about wine tasting is the diversity.\u00a0 There are so many wines, from so many countries and regions, that it\u2019s pretty clear that no one will ever taste them all.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let us deter you from trying.<\/p>\n
There are almost as many brands and shapes of wine glasses as there are wines.\u00a0 The basic model is a bowl shaped somewhat like a tulip, with a stem and a foot, so you can put it down without the wine all spilling out.\u00a0 The better manufacturers make different glasses for reds, whites, Bordeaux, Pinot, Port, etc.\u00a0 Among the better-known manufacturers are Spiegelau, Schott Zwiesel, Waterford, Riedel and so many more brands.\u00a0 While most of the wine glasses are stemmed, Riedel has introduced some stemless ones; some bistros use tumblers.\u00a0 Whatever shape or color, they all can hold wine. Besides the wine glasses, there are the balloon glasses or snifters for Cognac, whisky tumblers, goblets and highballs, Champagne flutes and dessert wine glasses.\u00a0 Some shapes ask for holding them in the palm of the hand, such as for warming Cognac, as an example, and for whiskey when one prefers it straight than on the rocks. Besides the beauty and diversity of each of them, the shape helps concentrate the bouquet and intensifies the flavor. \u00a0While it may seem like snobbism to have all those different shapes in glasses, but there are reasons, not just a snobbish thing<\/p>\n
There was once a time when winery tasting rooms used the smallest, cheapest glassware they could find, undoubtedly to cut cost.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t charge for a tasting and they gave away the glasses, which were just one step above a jelly jar and made it difficult to hold it by the stem.\u00a0 But as time and tastes have improved, better wineries are now offering their tastings in fine stemware.<\/p>\n
Almost all American wineries, to say nothing of most restaurants and bars, use stemmed wine glasses.\u00a0 Of course, a stemmed wine glass is elegant but besides that, the stem is meant to hold the bowl away from the heat of your hand, so that it doesn\u2019t warm the wine in your glass.\u00a0 Too often we see people holding their glass of wine the same way they hold a glass of water, grabbing it by the bottom of the bowl.\u00a0 Talking about elegance: this isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 This is something that gives us shivers when we see people, unfortunately, grabbing their wine glass with the hand around the bowl, instead of holding it by the stem.\u00a0 All they are doing is detracting from the wine tasting experience.\u00a0 Especially in winery tasting rooms, where the pours are necessarily small, the relative impact on the wine can be significant.<\/p>\n
Holding your wine glass by the stem will also make it easier to swirl the wine in order to aerate it.\u00a0 So get the most out of your wine when you sip it by holding the glass the way it was meant to be held.<\/p>\n
Enjoy your wine.\u00a0 Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the great things about wine tasting is the diversity.\u00a0 There are so many wines, from so many countries and regions, that it\u2019s pretty clear that no one will ever taste them all.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let us deter you from trying. There are almost as many brands and shapes of wine glasses as there … Continue reading How to Hold Your Wine Glass<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}