Choosing wine glasses begins with the wines you pour and the way you host. Compare bowl shape, balance, rim and storage needs, then decide whether a versatile set or a more specific shape would make everyday serving easier for your household. Wine Hardware in Walnut Creek carries glassware and wine accessories you can compare around your own routine. Bring your serving question to the showroom and ask about the available options.
Types of Wine Glasses
Types of Wine Glasses are an essential part of enjoying wine properly. There are many different types of glasses, each specially designed to enhance the flavour and aroma of the wine. Different types of glasses are used for different types of wines, such as red, white, and dessert wines, as well as champagne and sparkling wines. Red wines typically require larger glasses with a wide bowl to help oxygenate the wine, while white wines require smaller, narrower glasses to preserve the freshness of the wine. Champagne flutes are tall and slender with a long stem to keep your hand away from the bowl while swirling the wine. Dessert wines usually require a smaller glass to ensure a more concentrated flavor. Additionally, there are alternate types of wine glasses such as stemless glasses that provide a modern look and can be used for any type of wine.
Materials Used For Wine Glasses
The materials used for wine glasses range from glass and crystal to plastic and silicone. Glass and crystal are the most commonly used materials, while plastic and silicone are ideal for outdoor entertaining due to their durability and low maintenance. For a more premium look, pirouette cabernet sauvignon glasses are the perfect choice for serving red wines. White wine glasses come in a variety of sizes and shapes, including flutes for champagne. Dessert wine glasses come in a tiny size due to their higher alcohol content. With so many types of wine glasses to choose from, your guests will be sure to find the perfect one!
Serving Red Wines
When serving red wine, it is important to choose the right glassware. Different types of red wines require different shapes of glasses such as a Bordeaux glass for full-bodied reds, a Burgundy glass for medium-bodied reds, and a Zinfandel glass for lighter-bodied reds. For bolder red wines, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Alicante Bouschet or Bordeaux Blends, the larger “Bordeaux” glass is best. For Pinot Noir and other light-bodied wines, the “Burgundy” glass is preferable. The Pirouette Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Glasses are perfect for tasting full-bodied red wines with their unique shape and wide bowl. It’s also important to remember that white wine glasses have more U-shaped and upright bowls than red wine glasses, while Champagne flutes should be used for sparkling wines. Dessert wines should be served in smaller glasses specially designed for this purpose and stemless wine glasses are great for casual entertaining.
Bordeaux Glass
The Bordeaux glass is the tallest red wine glass, and is perfect for bold red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It has a long stem and a broad bowl, though not as wide as the Burgundy glass. The large round bowl of the Bordeaux glass helps to collect all the aromas and flavors of the wine, while also allowing a distance between the wine and the mouth, which helps to soften the tannins.
Burgundy Glass
The Burgundy glass is designed for lighter, full-bodied wines like Pinot Noir. This glass is shorter than the Bordeaux glass but it has a bigger bowl, broader than the Bordeaux glass, with a narrow top. This design directs wine to the tip of the tongue, allowing for better tasting of the wine’s fruit and tannin components. With its fishbowl shape, this type of glass also allows for a greater surface area for the aromas of the wines to be enjoyed. Wines to be enjoyed with this type of glass include light-to medium-bodied, fruity or floral wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, white Bordeaux, Fume Blanc, Loire, and White Burgundy.
Zinfandel Glass
The Zinfandel glass is a light-bodied, highly acidic varietal wine glass, creating a lush, bright and fragrant flavor profile. It is the perfect wine glass for Zinfandel, as it is slightly shorter than the Bordeaux wine glass and has a slightly larger bowl. This style of glass helps to bring out the best flavors and aromas in wines like Zinfandel, Malbec, Syrah (Shiraz), and Petite Sirah. Riedel Vinum Zinfandel Riesling Grand Cru Wine Glasses are a great choice for those looking for an elegant and functional wine-friendly, machine-blown glass. Consider trying different types of glasses for different types of wines, such as white wine glasses for white wines, Champagne flutes for sparkling wines, dessert wine glasses for sweet wines and stemless wine glasses for casual occasions.
Pinot Noir Glass
Pinot Noir Glasses are a unique shape, featuring a wide bowl and narrow rim that helps to concentrate aromas and achieve maximum aeration. These glasses are perfect for light-bodied red wines with high acidity and moderate tannin, such as those grown in Burgundy, the spiritual home of Pinot Noir. The generous bowl captures the rich fruit-forward characters and allows for greater appreciation of the subtle notes. It is also worth noting that Pinot Noir glasses are slightly smaller in scale than Burgundy glasses, but still provide excellent aeration to optimum appreciation of the wine.
White Wine Glasses
White wine glasses are typically smaller than those for red wines and feature a U-shaped bowl. This design helps to retain the cool temperature of white wines and keep the aromas from dissipating too quickly. The Chardonnay glass (also called Viognier or both) is the most traditional white wine glass type. It will have a smaller bowl than a red, which helps keep the aromas of the wine concentrated so they can be enjoyed properly by the drinker. For more full-bodied white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, larger glasses with broader bowls are recommended to allow the full flavors of the wine to come through.
Champagne Flutes
Champagne Flutes are the most popular glass shape for Champagne, and they feature a long stem making them elegant and easy to hold. They are designed for drinking any sparkling wine or champagne, and are typically used for non-vintage champagne. White wine glasses also work well across the range of champagne styles, with glasses with smaller openings and bowls being less expressive than glassware with a larger bowl shape. Libbey Signature Greenwich Champagne Flute Glasses are some of the best champagne glasses, as well as Marie Coupe Cocktail glassware for a less-expensive option. Tulips are also an option when drinking champagne.
Dessert Wine Glasses
Dessert wine glasses come in various shapes and sizes and are typically crafted in a decadent design that will do your favorite blends justice. With a smaller size to direct the wine to the back of the mouth, so that its sweetness doesn’t overwhelm, dessert wines generally require a specific type of glass. Popular brands such as Zalto and Riedel offer Sweet Wine Glasses, Vinum Port Glasses, and Sherry glasses that are ideal for serving this type of beverage. Additionally, stemless wine glasses are becoming increasingly popular as an alternate type of wine glass.
Alternate Types of Wine Glasses
Alternate Types of Wine Glasses can be used for different types of wine. Materials like acrylic, silicone and stemless wine glasses offer a unique look and feel to your drinks. Additionally, Pirouette Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Glasses are specially designed to bring out the rich flavor of red wines. No matter what type of wine you serve, different types of wine glasses will make your experience more enjoyable.
Stemless Wine Glasses
Stemless wine glasses are popular for casual drinking, often designed specifically for the variety of grape (red or white). These glasses come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are usually shaped like all-purpose glasses, but without the stem. Riedel Cabernet and Merlot Stemless Wine Glasses are one of the best stemless wine glasses according to restaurant owners and frequent party hosts.
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Stop by Wine Hardware today and discover the perfect wine glass to suit your needs. Our unparalleled selection of glasses will take your sipping experience to the next level! Don’t wait – come in and explore all we have to offer now.
Additional guidance: Types of Wine Glasses
To really welcome the color and composition of your wine you’ll need to buy wine glasses that are clear and smooth. Observing the shade of your wine, the “legs” of your wine, and how the light influences your wine are the initial phases in assessing and getting a charge out of it.
Crystal or a comparable glass, particularly blown glass, are ideal since they are flimsy. Thicker glass is thought to influence the essence of your wine and to make a bigger lip, making it hard to legitimately taste your wine.
You can buy great wine glasses at a better than average value that might be fine for your regular happiness regarding wine. Alternately, you can spend a considerable amount of cash on fantastic stemware that may improve your wine tasting and drinking knowledge. Give your wallet and your bed a chance to choose.
Visit Wine Hardware at 1617 Locust St, Walnut Creek, to compare wine accessories, or call (925) 944-1084 with your serving question.
More on choosing wine glass shape and quality
How Wine Glass Shape Affects Tasting
From the Wine Hardware article published 2019-09-10.
Wine glass shape is easiest to understand by comparing the same wine in different glasses. Notice aroma, balance and how comfortably you drink, then weigh those differences alongside durability, care and storage before choosing the glassware you will use most often. Wine Hardware in Walnut Creek carries glassware and wine accessories you can compare around your own routine. Bring your serving question to the showroom and ask about the available options.
This can be a personal choice but our opinion is that while shape does matter, quality is so much more important! Most people don’t have room to store upwards of 18 different shaped glasses just to support their broad palette of loving all that is wine! Shape can make a difference, and in 2015 Japanese researchers reported in Chemistry World, that the concentration distribution of alcohol leaving a glass found that both temperature and shape impacted the taste. So…it is proven and we do believe you should have a glass for your Whites, Sparkling, Bordeaux, and Pinot’s but going any deeper than that isn’t necessary…unless you have unlimited storage and cash! ????
All that said, the quality of your glass can DEFINITELY affect the taste of your wine. So much so that Mike and I have gone to the extent of bringing in our own wine glasses to our favorite restaurant when we brought in a special bottle of 2007 Gemstone Cabernet Sauvignon to share on our anniversary. We have been going to this restaurant for years so knew they would pour our bottle into those super thick rimmed glasses that could basically drop on a floor and bounce up…you know the ones I’m talking about!
Now, a quality (probably expensive) glass will not change how two buck chuck tastes but a terrible glass will detour the taste and appreciation of a very nice bottle of wine. You won’t get those fruits and aromas and experience that tasting a wine for the first time can bring.
Zalto glasses are definitely our preferred choice but do the test yourself if you can…even compare a mason jar to your wine glass. The choice is yours…shape or quality…or both!? We go with quality…and maybe shape…I mean, I’m not going to drink a Sauvignon Blanc in my Bordeaux Glass…we aren’t Neanderthals ????!!
Here are some of our favorite glasses
High End – Zalto Universal Glass
Medium of the road – Riedel Vinum Extreme Pinot Noir (2 pk)
Medium of the road – Riedel Veritas Cabernet/Merlot (2 pk)
Budget Friendly – Nachtman Vivendi (4 Pk)
Riedel Sister glass line
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