The Best Wine Glasses
The Best Wine Glasses – The world of wine glasses is vast and full of wonders.
The right glass can take an everyday Cab and make it taste sublime or bring out aromas you’d never catch with an ordinary glass from your special occasion bottle.
Whatever your entertaining style or wine knowledge, every home deserves a quality set of stems, whether you’re hosting the whole family for the holidays or unwinding on the couch on a Friday night.
Naysayers might believe that a pour into a regular drinking glass doesn’t ultimately change the wine for the casual wine drinker.
There’s nothing snooty about enhancing an everyday experience with an upgrade.
When it comes to enjoying wine, it can make a genuine difference.
Best White Wine Glass – Richard Brendon x Jancis Robinson The Original Wine Glass
If you’re more likely to opt for a Chablis than a Cabernet, this glass is the right choice.
The slightly thinner shape and tapered form bring out the best in white and sparkling wine varieties — less so for bold reds, a universal glass above or a dedicated red style is recommended.
It has a delicate feel but is made with durable lead-free crystal.
If you’re not a hardened connoisseur of wine, this set will be perfectly serviceable for most varietals.
It’s not going to pick up on the same nuances that the Josephine or Zaltos might, but it’s an excellent style to own or gift for white wine-loving households.
“The wine glasses are an example of the move towards universal glasses,” says Isle.
“It’s definitely more affordable than buying a different glass for every grape.”
The Best Wine Glasses – The Best Classical Wine Glass – Gabriel-Glas StandArt Crystal Wine Glasses
Spot this Austrian crystal glass in a store and you might guess that it retails for about twice the actual price.
This set of two from Gabriel-Glas is a truly one-for-all option with seamless construction and a wonderfully light but durable design.
The bell shape feels like a throwback to older wine glass designs, but the subtle flare of the bowl makes it ideal for swirling and enhances the nose of every sip.
Golden Age Wine owner Brandon Loper found this glass sturdy but elegant.
“Nicely balanced, and there is a deceiving amount of weight in the funnel portion of the stem,” he says, “It looks delicate, but it is in fact quite solid.”
Sommeliers and experts were surprised by the price of this glass, given its excellent quality and performance while sipping the Beaujolais and Cava.
“This is a true universal glass.
It can handle anything and everything.”
A note on care: dishwasher-safe.
Wine Enthusiast Somm Burgundy & Pinot Noir Wine Glass
The Wine Enthusiast Somm Pinot Noir glass has every element you could want.
Sommeliers swooned over this glass, calling it “visually striking” and noting the excellent bowl shape for aggressive swirling, catering to red wine lovers.
“This glass almost works like a decanter given its large surface area even with larger pours, making this glass a good option for bolder (and/or older) wines that need adequate time to fully open,” says Level 2 somm Laura Newman.
F&W Editor-in-Chief Hunter Lewis was also taken by the beauty of this glass.
“I love that you can see the legs coming down this glass, and for red, that’s important to me.”
As the name suggests, this glass is great for lighter reds, like Pinot Noir and Beaujolais.
The teku shape on the glass brings out the aromatics in all red varietals, allowing a full spectrum of flavors on the palate without losing the aromas on the nose.
“It’s easy to get half of my face into the glass,” says Lewis.
Despite the large volume, there is a substantial base and stem to support it. “It doesn’t feel too dainty.”
“This is a stunningly beautiful glass,” Lewis says, “It’s something worthy of a splurge or something that could elevate even a $15 bottle.”
It’s perfect for small dinner parties and cheering — the “clink” resonates with a satisfying, deep chime.
A note on care: dishwasher-safe.
Zalto Denk’Art Cabernet & Bordeaux Wine Glass
This glass style is the tallest, and the bowl is designed for bold red wines like Bordeaux, Cabernet and Merlot.
A broad base and medium/large stem hold a large bowl that tapers/closes at the opening.
The design allows a greater amount of oxygen to contact the wine, evaporating ethanol.
The wider opening makes the wine taste smoother, bringing out fruit flavors.
Cabernet Sauvignon/Bordeaux glasses are the largest of the three types.
The size of these glasses creates a large amount of space between your nose and the wine.
This lets ethanol vapors move past your nose, which allows you to experience more of the wine’s aromatic compounds and less of the strong alcohol vapors.
The larger opening will also let the wine flow onto the entire surface of your palate.
This results in a more robust and comprehensive tasting experience.
High-alcohol and high-tannin wines like Petit Sirah are well-suited to Cabernet Sauvignon/Bordeaux glasses.
Riedel Veritas Old World Syrah, Shiraz, Sangiovese, Malbec Red Wine Glasses
This glass style is shorter than the Bordeaux glass above and has a slightly smaller bowl.
It is designed for medium- to full-bodied red wines.
Harsh flavors and spices are softened because the wine is intended to gradually hit your palate from the smaller opening.
The narrower bowl tends to taper slightly more, which helps to trap the aroma.
Wines like Syrah/Shiraz, Sangiovese, and Malbec benefit from glasses with a slightly narrower bowl than Bordeaux glasses.
This design concentrates the aromas and directs them toward the nose, intensifying the experience of full-bodied red wines, and softening the aromas and spices presented in wines.
Size And Shape
Wine glasses range from small glasses of under two ounces for dessert and fortified wines to giant balloons that can hold nearly a whole bottle if you don’t stop pouring.
Generally, you want glasses large enough to get some air in the wine.
A standard pour is around 3-5 ounces — about the bottom third of a tulip-shaped glass or the bottom quarter of a balloon-shaped glass.
If you are not purchasing varietal-specific glasses, choose a glass with about an 8-ounce capacity for white wines and a 10- to 12-ounce capacity for reds to allow for that airspace.
You should also consider cleanup; if you intend to put them in the dishwasher, be sure the stems are not so tall as to prevent them from fitting in your washer.
Stemmed or Seamless
Wine glasses are designed with stems to keep your warm hands off of the bowl of the glass, which will warm the wine.
Stemless glasses were designed to be compact for storage and cleaning and less prone to breakage.
If you tend to serve everyday “house” level wines, or if you have a lot of kids and dogs running around your parties, stemless might be the way to go for safety’s sake.
However, if you enjoy higher-level wines, having stemmed glasses on hand can be worth it to enjoy them properly.
Stemmed or Seamless
The main difference between “standard” non-varietal red and white glasses is usually in width.
Red wine glasses will usually have a wider bowl profile since reds tend to need more air to make them sing. White wine glasses will have a taller, narrower bowl, which can help them retain their cooler temperature.
You can serve red or white in pretty much any glass, so if you want to buy one set, look for a universal style glass, which splits the difference.
The bowl might be larger than a standard white glass but less balloon-shaped than a traditional red glass.
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