The Top 3 Glasses that Rule the Wine World - Choose Carefully!

In this Nerd Lab, we're going to talk wine glasses, about what to look for and what to avoid when choosing a wine glass, and which glass goes with which wine. Here we go. Welcome to the V is for Vino Nerd Lab. We take complicated wine topics and make them simple. Today, we're talking about wine glasses. Plastic cups, coffee mugs, solo cups, mason jars, tumblers, technically, anything can be a wine glass if it can hold wine. And while wine glasses vary from really small to really, really big, some companies even make different glasses for each different grape. And while that may be a bit extreme, there is some science that says certain wines are better in certain glasses. But before we chat about that, let's talk about what we should look for in every wine glass. Number one, we want a clear, unobstructed view of the wine and color. So that eliminates etchings and painted glasses. Number two, we want it to be large enough to be able to swirl without spilling. And why do we swirl? In science terms, chemical compounds created during fermentation bond to the alcohol molecules. Trace amounts of alcohol molecules start to evaporate upon contact with oxygen when you swirl. This carries the alcohol molecules and the flavor aromas up into your nose. In non-science terms, it makes the wine smell nice. If you don't believe me, next time you have a glass of wine, smell it, and then smell it again immediately after swirling. This automatically eliminates some traditional styles of wine glasses, like port wine glasses, yes, even for port, and small wine glasses. Number three, we want the bowl to be large enough for the aromas we've released during swirling to be partially captured and contained so we can smell them. So while flutes may do a good job preserving bubbles in sparkling wine, they do a terrible job allowing you to smell and appreciate the wine. Think about it like this, which candle is going to give off more aroma? This skinny one or this fat one? Number four, we want a stem. I know stemless glasses are trendy and easier to wash, but they make it hard to swirl, you get fingerprints on the bowl, and you warm up the wine from your body heat because, you know, red hot. And number five, we want glass or crystal, no, plastic. Plastic can warp, it gets cloudy and stains over time, and may even leach chemicals into your wine. As far as crystal or glass, crystal is known as the best. It's light, thin, while still strong, and refracts light better. But it's also more expensive, and if you're like me and have a bad habit of breaking things, glass can work just as well, and because it's cheaper, you're not so upset with yourself when they inevitably end up shattering. Why? So we're left with three different glasses, and if you have these three, I don't think you need any others. First are your white wine glasses, whose name is a bit deceiving because I think it should be used for a lot more than that. I use these glasses for light to medium bodied whites, dessert wines, rosés, and yes, even sparkling wines. The smaller bowl keeps the wine cold longer, while still hitting all our points from before in regard to aromas. It's a good balance of bubble preservation and aroma capture for sparkling wines, and a good size to keep high alcohol wines like Port and Madeira far enough away from your nose so you don't burn it from the alcohol. Next are your burgundy glasses, which are for the two grapes of burgundy, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and also a few select other grapes. But this translates to a full bodied whites and light aromatic reds. The super wide bowl allows the delicate aromas from these wines to accumulate and then be funneled right into your nose. And the wide rim spreads the wine across the front of your palate when you sip to better appreciate the more subtle wine. Finally, you have Bordeaux glasses for medium to full bodied reds. Things like Bordeaux blends, Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz, Tempranillo, basically any red that isn't Pinot Noir. The extra distance between your nose and the wine provided by the glass helps tame down the intense alcohol so you smell the flavors and not the booze. And the smaller rim helps direct the wine to the back of the tongue, which minimizes bitterness from tannins. If you insist on only one glass, and I don't blame you if you do, look for what we call an all purpose glass, which is in between the sizes of a white wine and a Bordeaux glass. And while I do recommend using a wine glass to drink wine, I won't hold it against you if you find yourself drinking out of something else. What? I hope you learned a bit about wine glasses, and as always, keep geeking out. Hey, hope you enjoyed our nerd lab on wine glasses, which aired in the Travel Portugal episode of the wine show I host and produce, V is for Vino. Definitely head on over to the channel and check it out if you haven't yet. It's a lot of fun, as are all our episodes. See you soon.