Choosing Wine Glasses

When you’re choosing wine glasses you may decide that you would like to splurge on more than just all purpose wine glasses. You may decide that you want exactly the right glass for the right wine.

The Riedel Wine Glass Company is famous for designing exactly the right glass for the right wine. A visit to their website is an education in the range of wine glasses available. You’ll find different types of red wine glass, of a white wine glass, dessert and sherry wine glasses of course glasses for champagne

In fact, on the Riedel website you will see pictures of every size and type of wine glass you would ever want.

Even with quality Riedel products, you can find a price range to suit you when you shop for wine glasses. You can go for pricey crystal stemware, or less costly glassware.

Wine glasses are usually clear so you can appreciate the color of the wine. They also are usually stemmed, for several reasons. You can hold the glass by the stem and avoid smudging the bowl with fingerprints. You also avoid warming the wine from the heat of your hands when you hold it by the stem. One of the pleasures of admiring wine is swirling it around as you hold it by the stem, admiring the way it coats the bowl of the wine glass.

Champagne glasses: You can choose from the flute shape or the wide coupe shape. The flute shape holds the bubbles better and allows the wine to retain its chill.

On the other hand, the coupe shape is versatile, you can also use it to serve other dishes like desserts.

White wine glass:When you're choosing wine glasses for your white wine, you'll be choosing a tulip-shaped glass.

With a narrower opening, the wine retains the slight chill at which it should be served.

Usually you will only have one kind of white wine glass regardless of the type of white wine you are serving.

Red wine glass: Red wine glasses are rounder than white wine glasses, and usually have a wider bowl.

The Bordeaux glass is tall with a wide bowl. Typical wines you would serve in this red wine glass are cabernets and merlots.

The Burgundy glass is larger than a Bordeaux glass. Use it to serve wines like the Pinot Noir

Sherry and dessert wine glasses:These glasses are smaller than red wine glasses and white wine glasses. The wine you serve in them is almost always fortified (heavier in alcohol content, so servings should be smaller.

Sometimes you see the sherry glass referred to as a copita – which simply means small wine glass.

Remember that you want to host a stress-free dinner party. If all of this information about choosing wine glasses starts to get more complicated than you want, just remember that your overall goal is to keep things simple.

So use only the number and kind of wine glasses you’re completely comfortable with. On any given dinner party night, that might mean just using the tried and true all purpose wine glass. Your guests won’t turn the wine down because you used your all purpose wine glasses!

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