Clink the right glasses

We’ve all seen photos of high-profile parties with the glitterati holding wine glasses, and some may wonder why wines need to be had out of specific glasses.

A well-made long-stemmed wine glass enhances the wine-drinking experience in several ways. The clear glass allows you to see the wine’s colour and clarity, the bowl itself concentrates the wine’s  aroma and transmits its essence to the discerning individual, a long stem ensures that the temperature of the wine does not change through contact with one’s hand, and last, swirling the wine helps aerate and soften the wine for better appreciation of its taste.

Try this test sometime: take a decent-quality wine and taste it using three different glasses — a plain water glass, an “all-purpose” wine glass (short stem, small bowl), and a proper long-stemmed wine glass. The aroma and taste of the wine will change completely with each receptacle, from ordinary to a little better to best with the “proper” wine glass.

The question is, what is a “proper” wine glass, and how does one go about choosing one?

Go to any shopping website and it’s immediately apparent that wine glasses come in all shapes, sizes and prices — from about Rs 150 per glass to over Rs 9,500 per glass. So, obviously, one needs some guidelines for the task.

First off, forget all that stuff about keeping different wine glasses for red, white and sparkling wines: in my opinion that segmentation is targeted primarily at increasing the sales of wine-glass producers. Of course, it looks better to have different wine glasses for each wine category — why, most international producers are now even pushing different wine glasses for each wine varietal. 

Basically, one needs a single “universal” wine glass that has a transparent (as opposed to coloured or cut-glass) bowl of about 20 oz or 600 ml capacity (1 oz equals about 30 ml) with a good long stem. (I abhor stemless wine glasses). The bowl should be curved, not flaring or straight, and the rim should have a fine finish.

Add to this a fluted wine glass for sparkling wines (about 250 ml, with a long but curved bowl) and you are done.

In India, the popular wine glass brands are Ocean, Luminarc and the newly introduced Pasabahce (from Italy). Internationally, the leading glassware producers are all German companies: Stölzle, Schott Zwiesel, Riedel, Spiegelau, Gabriel Glas, and Zalto. These are the wine glasses you will find in all the star hotels, differentiated by quality (hand-made or machine-made) and price (starts at Rs 3,000 per wine glass and goes rapidly upwards).

In short, invest in good wine glasses. It tremendously enhances the appeal and quality of the wines you are serving. At the same time, remember that what’s important is what’s inside the wine glass — good can appear better but cannot become great.

One needs a single ‘universal’ wine glass that has a transparent bowl of about 20 oz or 600 ml capacity with a good long stem. The bowl should be curved, not flaring or straight, and the rim should have a fine finish

Wines I’ve been drinking: The festive season is a good time to celebrate with Champagne or sparkling wines and at the last meeting of The Wine Connoisseurs, we broached a couple of bottles of Champagne Philippe Gonet Blancs de Blanc — which means it is produced only from the Chardonnay grape, with no wine from either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier as in regular Champagnes,

Rated at 90 points by Wine Spectator and priced at Rs 6,569 in Bengaluru, this complex, creamy and fruity wine has been produced by a company owned by the Gonet family for over 200 years.

Lightly malty with hints of apples, stone, bread, and a creamy and refined taste, the Gonet was a terrific start to an interesting evening.

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant