What the right glass does to wine

Glass was first developed in ancient Egypt around 1500 BC, but remained rare and expensive

It’s fairly well established today that wines should be consumed out of uncut stemmed wine glasses.

The rationale is quite simple: the clear glass allows one to see the wine’s  colour and clarity better; a curved bowl helps to concentrate aromas; and a stem allows the liquid to be sipped at the temperature it was served at rather than get warmed up by touch.

This was, however, not always so.

Wine has been around for over 8,000 years, so obviously the receptacle used to imbibe it has changed over time. The earliest would have been a simple cup or bowl — indeed, “being