Glasses make a tremendous difference in the taste of wine. Try this experiment to find out for yourself.
Nothing adds to the impact of a good wine like the right glass. That may seem like an exaggeration, but I urge you to try this experiment.
The purpose of this experiment is to see if the glass you use really has any effect on the taste of the wine.
- Assemble some tumblers of various heights, a brandy snifter, a dish-shaped champagne glass, a champagne flute, and a traditional stemmed wine glass. Grab anything from which you drink.
- Measure identical amounts of wine, three ounces for example, and pour into each glass. Wait a minute or two and then sniff the bouquet from each glass. Does it seem more pronounced from any particular one? If one of the glasses seems to nurture a more profound bouquet, wait a few minutes and repeat the experiment. This time, sniff the most productive glass after you have tried all the others. If it still promotes the bouquet more than the others, you can be sure that the shape is the difference.
- Now take a taste from each of the glasses. Was there a clear-cut winner? If there was, why wouldn't you use that glass for all the cold beverages that you drink? If you're a relentlessly scientific type, you might try this experiment with both a cheap wine and a more expensive one. You could continue on, sampling reds and whites, sweet wines and dry.
We get our results from this experiment because a great deal of our experience of wine comes from the aromas that develop in the air above the surface of the wine. A glass that forces the wine to have a large surface area for its volume and then narrows to concentrate the vapors will increase the flavor experience. Glasses with a thin lip seem to interfere less with the taste of wine than thicker (and cheaper) glasses. The shape of the glass makes a difference, too. Since we can only smell molecules that are in the air, the best wine-tasting glass is going to promote evaporation by exposing the largest possible surface area to the air. These glasses are wide at the waist and narrow at the top to get more from their wine. Does it make a difference?
It shouldn't be necessary to mention that a wine glass should be clean and odorless. But sometimes restaurants, in their zeal to make their glassware clean use rinsing aids that leave behind a strong mineral smell. If you're spending a lot of money on a bottle of wine in a restaurant, sniff the empty glass first. At home, a film of grease can settle on a previously clean glass. It's no reflection on the quality of the housekeeping-cooking fats disperse in the air and settle on everything in a kitchen. An additional rinsing and a wipe with a clean towel are all you need.
If you'd rather not do the wine experiment, you can read my results over my shoulder. The Riedel glass simply outperforms every other wine glass that I've tried. At this low price, (US$32 for four stems) the Ouverture series represents a tremendous value: for the price of a very modest bottle - US$8 - you have something that will increase the value of each and every wine you drink from it. Furthermore, the glasses are dishwasher safe and remarkably sturdy.
Recommendation: Buy a set before you pull another cork.
