Some Facts about Wine Glasses

Wine glasses are an integral part of the wine experience. That is a pretty strong statement but it is absolutely true. We spent many years scoffing at wine snobs with their special glasses but in truth we were very, very wrong
We began our journey into wine glassware with a simple but very dramatic test. We tasted a cabernet sauvignon in a glass specifically designed for that type of wine and a simple, every day, run of the mill generic wine glass. In the cab glass, all of the subtle nuances of the wine were open and obvious in both taste and aroma. The really dramatic effect was with the generic glass. All that we could smell and taste was vanilla and oak with absolutely none of the fruit showing up at all. It was truly an eye opener.
Another shocker was the fact that the proper glass directs the wine to the place on the tongue to best taste that particular wine. This is due, in part, to the shape of the bowl but also to the fact that there is no rim on the glass. The rim, that rolled edge at the top of the glass, creates turbulence as the wine enters the mouth and spreads the wine across the entire tongue rather that directing it to specific taste areas. Run your fingers around the rim or your wine glass, if it is rolled or you can feel a rim or see it, it is not a good glass for wine, regardless of what you paid for it.
Then there is the color of the glass. Any colors, other that clear, is not acceptable for a wine glass, so that lets out Aunt Sophie’s purple wine glasses with the grape leaves on the stem that you inherited. A tinted or decorated glass will act to change the color of a wine.
The less expensive wine glasses are made of common glass and have a slight, often unnoticed green tint to them. Look down at the rim of the glass, in good light, and you will see color on an improper wine glass. There is also the question of the thickness of the glass: the thinner the better. Lead-glass or as it is commonly known, crystal glass, is the best. It is colorless and can be made extremely thin while retaining its strength and there is no chance of any lead leaching from the glass and into the wine.
One final point about wine glasses. While good wineglasses dramatically enhance the enjoyment of any wine, their cost can be high; very high. It would take a person with a good deal of money to throw around to be able to afford all of the wines glasses for all of the varieties that they may drink. Get just enough glasses to satisfy the number of people who regularly enjoy wine at your table. If you a very serious wine enthusiast get the glasses for the variety you most enjoy. If it is cabernet sauvignon, all of the other red wines will work, perhaps not as well as a glass specifically designed for that wine, but it will do the trick in a manner considerably better than the rimmed generic wine glass generic wine.
To test this theory and see if we are right, spring for a buck at your local dollar store and buy a cheap wine glass (glass not plastic please) and taste the same wine in that glass and a better wine glass. The difference will prove to be dramatic. The flavor, aroma and perhaps even the color will prove to be very, very, very different.
In our case that the number was two so we purchased two wine glasses of several different types, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, pinot grigio and pinot noir without breaking the bank too badly. We use these glasses for all of the wines we sample for review, but when we have company, they get the “other” wineglasses.