Wine has always been one of the finest drinks. As such it requires special care of the food pairing, temperature, timing, and serving containers in order to deliver most out of its quality and joy for the end beneficiaries.
Depending on the type of the wine, choosing the right glass would maximize the taste and aroma of the wine. When it comes to sommeliers and guests educated and experienced in wine tasting, you do not want to just serve in any glass, but rather invest in a glassware that would justify the quality of the wine, your knowledge in wines and utmost customer care as a caterer.
The shape of the glass itself can dictate the density, taste and flavor of the wine just by manipulating the vaporing properties which define the aromas collected in the space left above the liquid up to the rim.
Wine classification
Wines have been studied and evaluated to finest details and in different metrics by many, yet here we would stick to a more standard wine classification in terms of color, heaviness, differentiating physical properties and bitterness vs sweetness of the wine.
Accordingly we would discuss 8 types of wine: white wines light- and full-bodied, sparkling wines, rose wine, red wines full-, medium- , and light-bodied, dessert wines.
White Wines
When it comes to white wines, we usually serve them in glasses with more narrow and smaller in size bowls. The reason behind is that white wines are usually served chilled and small bowls allow preserving a cool temperature for longer and keep the aromatic and acidic features of the wine stronger. Smaller openings also prevent the oxidation keeping their clean flavors.
Yet, these smaller bowl glasses are not the universal choice for white wines. So called full-bodied wines like oaked Chardonnay are better served in larger bowl glasses, putting accent on the texture of the wine due to the light oxidation enriching to their full flavors.
Rose Wines
As there are many debates on the wine glassware importance in the world, rose wines often are left out from the general discussion. Some sommeliers claim that a diamond-shaped bowls with narrow opening classes get the most out of the rose wines. The wide bowl exhales their fruity-floral scents and the narrow end guides them to the nose.
Red Wines
Red wines are served in bigger, wider, and rounder shaped, intended to mitigate the tannin bitterness and the spices, but also to increase the oxidation rate and thus intensity it’s flavor and aroma. The wider opening allows the nose closer to the wine thus accelerating the aromatic exposure. Experience has shown that red wines taste smoother when served in a wider opening glass.
To refine the selection of red wine glasses further, we can choose between Bordeaux and Burgundy as two main glassware styles suitable for different shades of red wine.
Bordeaux glasses are taller, with a bit smaller still a big bowl, designed for full-bodied dark wines rich in tannin like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, enabling ethanol evaporation. Usually, same glasses are also used for medium-bodied semi-dark wines with more spicy notes like Malbec and Syrah. Nevertheless, for this medium category often restaurants offer more standard glasses, with a bit smaller opening than the Bordeaux glasses.
Burgundy glasses are with wider bowl than the Bordeaux glasses, designed to collect the complex floral aromas of more delicate light-bodied wines like Pinot Noir.
From the specialty wines, for both primary types, sparkling and dessert wines we have very peculiar glasses. Sparkling wines like Champagne and Prosecco are served in flute narrow bowl glasses to maintain the carbonating feature and keep the good esthetics in motion longer.
Dessert sweet aromatic wines like Porto are served in small wine glasses with narrow mouth to reduce evaporation and intensify aromas. Other dessert wines like sherry, with higher alcohol content, are served in narrow bowl with wider conical opening to direct the wine to the back of the mouth and reduce its sweetness.
At IEP we still believe the most elegant glasses come as goblets with bowl, stem and a foot. We offer multiple varieties of stemware for water, red wine, white wine and champagne. We have plain and glasses with silver and gold rim in multiple designs.
Stemmed glasses not only add to the aesthetics, but also prevent warming up white wine’s temperature holding hands away from the bowl and keeping temperature higher for red wines if holding the bowl underneath.
In response to the popularity of wines, investment and convenience required by our customers we narrowed down and standardized the glasses for white, red and specialty wines and added one water glass in the sets as our experience has proven water is often paired with wine under guest’s request.
Our glassware sets have been highly rated and chosen repeatedly by our loyal customer due to their design, quality and affordable pricing.
