Personalized Wine Glasses
Why are there so many different kinds, shapes and sizes of wine glasses? Let’s face it, you can swig wine right out of the bottle if your only goal is to drink what is in the bottle as quickly as possible. There is a lot more to it than merely appearance. The whole purpose behind the different shapes and sizes of the wine glasses are to enhance the enjoyment, taste and experience of drinking wines. Some wines are meant to be sipped, and stay on the tongue a bit longer, so the taste can be fully appreciated. Other wines are meant to hit the back of the mouth more, usually because they are sweeter dessert wines.
What about the new trend in stemless wine glasses? While these are becoming quite popular, there is one downside. The Stem of the wine glass really serves two purposes when it comes to wine appreciation. One of them surprisingly actually does have something to do with taste.
Benefits of a Stemmed Glass
The first benefit of a stem, as anyone who has ever washed a wine glass knows, is that it keeps the fingerprints and other markings from the bowl of the wineglass. This allows the drinker to see the color and complexity of a wine (With many wines, that will change the longer the bottle is open as exposure to air will affect both.) But the reason that has more to do with taste is that one’s hands are generally warm and when one cups the bowl, one can warm up the wine inside of it. Now, in some instances this is done intentionally, such as when a white varietal is served so chilled as to be tasteless at first. But mostly, warm is not good for wine and the stem keeps the heat from your hands away from the bowl of the wine.
Downside to Stemless Wine Glasses
Those are the potential then two “downsides” to the stemless glass. They tend to get full of fingerprints easily and unless you are aware of how you are holding the glass, they can accidentally warm your wine.
When we talk about the shape of the bowl, we are mostly talking about which part of your mouth the bowl is going to allow to receive the wine first. All will become narrower at the top, even if only slightly because one of the basic enjoyment factors of wine is the smell or aroma and the bowl will tend to move that upward.
You may wonder then why all glasses are not shaped like a tall champagne glass, if the long bowel and narrow opening allow for more experience of the aroma. This is because the bowl needs to be large enough for the air to come in and oxidize the wine so the aroma is released and large enough to allow for “swirling” which does in fact “open up” the flavors of the wine.
The “lines of wine” that fall back into the bottom of the bowel after you swirl or drink are known as “legs,” a wine is said to have strong “legs” when these are pronounced, and while they are said to indicate various things depending on who you believe, one thing they do indicate (proven scientifically) is the alcohol content. Alcohol will take longer to make its way back into the bowl and so a more pronounced leg indicates a higher alcohol content. In the next post, we’ll talk about a wine varietal and then further explore various subcategories of the wine glasses.