The holidays are coming, and so are excuses to host random house parties. Cocktail parties, Pizza parties, cookout parties, wine parties, game nights, barbecue parties, pool parties, parties for the sake of throwing a party…you get the idea. Let’s talk wine parties though.
Everyone looks for a reason to get a couple of people together and have some good fun with food and drinks all around during the holidays and we are here for all of it.
Different strokes, for different folks, different wine glasses for different wines is a saying I just came up with. What I didn’t just come up with is that Wine glasses just like wines are not made equal. There is a wine glass made for a particular wine.
See, wine is the single most alcoholic drink with the most rules. I mean, you have to know which wines have to be served chilled and which ones are to be served at room temperature. Which ones are to be served with white meats and which ones to be served with red meats. Which wines can be served in a long stem wine glass and which ones can make it inside a stemless wine glass. Which region is the wine from, is it full-bodied,can it be drank in a particular weather, can it be used to make a toast, with what glass, held which particular way…the rules are endless.
Learn your wine glasses…
There are different types of glasses for white wine, different glasses for red wines and different glasses for bubbly wines (I’m sure you already knew this in regards to the latter).
White Wine glasses
White wine does not need as much space to breathe as red wine. They, therefore, need smaller glasses with shorter bowls to preserve their delicate and subtle aromas. These tighter, narrower-bowled glasses concentrate and preserve the wine’s qualities.
White wine glasses also have longer stems than red wine glasses because white wine is typically served at a lower temperature, and your hand can warm the wine if it is too close to the bowl of the glass. Hence white wine glasses’ long stems allow the drinker to keep their hand farther from the bowl.
There are two types of white wine glasses:
These two types of glasses have differently shaped bowls that accommodate the characteristics of particular wines.
- Glasses for high-acid wines – Smaller of the two types and used to serve white wines with a lower alcohol percentage. Their design allows the wine to move to the middle of the palate hence bringing out the wine’s acidic qualities. Twines best suited for this glass are Dry Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, and Rosé.
2. Glasses for full-bodied wines. This glass has wider openings and is larger which allows the alcohol vapors to flow past the nose while accentuating the richer qualities of full-bodied whites like Chardonnay.
Red Wine Glasses
Red wine glasses usually have a larger bowl and wider rims than white wine glasses which allows the bolder, fuller flavors of red wines to breathe. The wine opens up and displays both aromatic and flavor qualities more easily in these glasses.
PS: Some red wine glasses may even have tulip-shaped rims to invite more air into the glass.
There are 3 main categories of red wine glasses:
- Full-bodied (or Bordeaux) – Largest of the 3 red wine glasses. The large glass creates a huge space between one’s nose and the wine which lets ethanol vapors move past the nose allowing the experience of wine’s aromatic compounds and less of the strong alcohol vapors. This glass is for high alcohol and high tannin wines like Petit Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
2. Medium-bodied – Smaller than Bordeaux glasses they soften some flavors and keep a little more of the ethanol vapors in the glass. Wines with lighter alcohol such as Chianti and Rhone which have pronounced characteristics are served best in Bordeaux glasses.
3. Light-bodied (or Burgundy)- The space of this glass bowl allows the wine’s aroma to accumulate and the shorter lip encourages the wine to run over the tip of the palate which can enhance the sweetness of the wine. Burgundy glasses work well with lighter, delicate red wines. Serve your Pinotage, Lambrusco, or even Pinot Noir in Burgundy glasses.
