I can not overstate the importance of good stemware to the overall enjoyment of a glass of wine. That said, it is not necessary to mortgage the house to have the stemware you need. When we drink wine we engage our sense of sight, smell and taste. Wine is beautiful in the glass, it can have a wonderful aroma and, of course, we enjoy how it tastes. A wine glass should enhance each of these sensations.

Sight
Wine has great visual appeal. A good wine glass should be absolutely clear so as not to impede our view of the wine. Etched and colored wine glasses may be beautiful in themselves, but they will hinder, rather than enhance your enjoyment of the wine.

Smell
A large percentage of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Just recall how unappetizing food becomes when suffering from a cold. So, it is very important that we be able to smell wine as we drink it. A good wine glass not only allows us to smell the wine, it enhances our ability to do so. A red or white wine glass should be tulip shaped, that is larger at the base and narrowing toward the mouth. This shape concentrates the wine’s aroma, making it easier to smell. The bowl of the glass should have sufficient diameter to expose a large surface area of wine to the air, increasing the release of aromatics and allowing the wine to breath. We’ll talk more about the size of glasses a little farther on.


Taste
The way a glass contributes to how a wine tastes is a bit less obvious than its contribution to sight and smell. The shape of a glass dictates how we hold our heads when drinking. For example, a wide, open glass requires us to lower our heads to sip the wine, while a narrow glass wants us to tilt our heads back and let the wine flow by gravity. This positioning of the head delivers the wine to different parts of the mouth. While we think of our sense of taste residing primarily in the tongue, temperature and texture also play a role in the sensation of how something tastes. As we drink our head position changes, the wine is initially directed onto a particular portion of the mouth and tongue and, at that moment, three messages are simultaneously transmitted to the brain: temperature, texture and taste. A properly designed wine glass will direct the flow of wine to those areas of the palate which accentuate the good characteristics of a particular wine and away from those areas of the palate that would accentuate disagreeable characteristics.

Size of the Glass
Red wine glasses are generously sized to allow a large wine surface area for the maximum release of aromatics and exposure to air. The size and design of the glass not only concentrates these aromas, but actually places our nose practically in the glass when we drink. A white wine glass is smaller than a red wine glass. White wine is served well chilled and a glass with a large surface area would cause the wine to quickly warm. White wine also releases fewer aromatics than red wine, so a large surface area, as large as that of a red wine glass is not required. The size of the white wine glass is a compromise between a small enough surface area to maintain the wine’s temperature and a large enough surface area to release and concentrate aromas. How Many Glasses: Fine stemware makers like Riedel make glasses optimized to all of the common varietals. That is, they make a glass specifically for Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, etc. But, for most of us, three types of “general purpose” wine glasses should meet our needs; a red wine glass, a white wine glass and a Champagne glass.

General Purpose Wine Glasses

Red Wine Glass: A 20 ounce “tulip” or narrowing goblet is the most useful as it allows swirling but has a narrow opening to concentrate the aroma or bouquet. This type of glass is often referred to as a Bordeaux or Cabernet glass.

White Wine Glass: A slightly smaller, 15 ounce version of the “tulip” can be used as a white wine glass. There is less need to aerate white wine and the smaller diameter helps keep the chill.

Champagne Glass: A narrow “tulip” Champagne flute prolongs the bubbles of sparkling wine and preserves its chill. The small diameter reduces the surface area of the wine and thereby retains carbonation and temperature.

You can pay just about any amount of money you want for a wine glass, from $5.00 to $500.00, but you should be able to find perfectly acceptable stemware for between $10 and $20 per stem. While heavier glass stems resist breakage better than thin ones, thin glasses will provide a better drinking experience. Thin glass stems tend to be a little more expensive than the heaver stems.

How Full is Full?
For red wine between 4 and 6 ounces and for white wine between 3 and 4 ounces would constitute a full glass of wine. If we use a properly sized and proportioned glass, filling the glass to the point where the bowl begins to curve inward will provide just about this quantity of wine. Over filling the glass reduces the area in which the aromas concentrate, reduces the surface area of the wine exposed to the air and hinders the ability to swirl the wine without spillage.

Washing Stemware
Hand wash or machine wash? If someone pays $500 for a wine glass then I would agree they might want to hand wash it. However, if they paid $10 or $15 for a wine glass they might want to consider using the dishwasher. I personally have broken far more wine glasses hand drying them than I ever have in the dishwasher. Using the dishwasher assumes that it will accommodate the stemware in a manner that 1) puts no stress on the bowl or stem, and 2) protects it from being struck by other items in the dishwasher. Sometimes this requires washing the stemware alone, but many dishwashers have a crystal cycle or at least a short wash cycle that won’t use much water. It also assumes the use of a good quality detergent designed for crystal. At least for me, hand washing stemware is fraught with danger. First there is trying not to bang the glass into either the sink or the faucet, and then there is the dreaded drying. Drying has been my downfall. I can’t begin to count the number of times I have been drying the inside of the bowl and had a section of it break away in my hand. Forewarned is forearmed, so use great care hand washing stemware.