Okay, I admit it, I have a fetish for nice wine glasses. A table set with fine glassware looks fabulous and it is much nicer to drink wine out of a fine glass. But there are so many different wine glasses out there! How does one know where to start in order to put together an adequately minimum set of glasses to entertain guests who enjoy drinking wine? I’ve probably made most of the mistakes that can be made with glass purchases so here are some of the things I have learned that might help you establish or upgrade your glassware.
First, recognise that everything is a trade-off. Finer glassware is going to be more expensive. There are some relatively fine bargain glasses in the big homeware discount stores and if that is your budget so be it, but in my experience, they are more fragile than the more expensive branded equivalent. Thicker glasses just don’t look or feel as nice but regardless of price, the thinner the glass, the easier to break.
Second, it is necessary to plan for breakages – glasses will be broken, even those clunky ones will one day succumb. So be smart and buy more than you need. My first two decades of wine drinking saw a gradual accumulation of odd mismatched glasses because I only ever purchased (or was gifted) a standard set of 4 or 6. Particularly at the cheaper end, there is not much chance you will be able to purchase the same glasses in two - or three years to replace the ones you’ve broken. Don’t buy one set, buy two! (If you’re buying at one of the big homeware discount stores look for the two for one deal, and if you don’t see it ask for a deal!)
Third, think about the way you are going to use them. Large parties or outside events are not where you want to pass out your expensive Zaltos. They are too easy to knock over, if it’s windy they might even blow over. For many that’s an argument to go stemless, and if that sits ok with your personal aesthetics go for it! Personally, I still like to drink wine out of a stemmed glass, it just feels different, and greasy BBQ fingers are best holding the stem to leave the bowl clean. For the big party I’d say buy a couple of dozen dishwasher safe all-purpose commercial glasses and get a storage/dishwashing crate that fits your dishwasher. My go-to party glass is the moderately-sized and adequately robust Spiegelau Festival White Wine Glass, shown in the picture below.
The Spiegelau Festival White Wine Glass and a dishwashing crate with 25 of them!
Which brings me to the fourth point – size. Yes, big thin glasses do look amazing, both on the table and with a little wine in them. But the psychologists tell us drinking wine from bigger glasses is the same as eating from a bigger plate, it just seems to make us drink more. My Spiegelau party glass is not outsized. When there are lots of different wines to try at the party – a splash in one of these is still a splash, whereas a bigger glass needs a bigger splash to look like there’s something in it. It all adds up over the evening – especially in a party where it’s easy to lose track of just how much you have actually drunk.
The same glass is fine also for the outdoor BBQ, both the stem and the glass overall are not overly tall, so the risk of being knocked or blown over is not excessive and the glass is a little heavier and more robust. (It still won’t bounce like your Arcoroc water glass!) However, if your party is a more refined, sit-down affair you might wish to have a better and larger glass, or to reserve the Festival white wine glass for the whites and have something with a larger bowl for the reds. In the photo below I have the Reidel Ouverture glass alongside the Festival White Wine Glass. The bowl and rim of the glass are finer (thinner) than the Festival which improves the aesthetics. But the glass has a very short stem, a wider base, and it’s the same overall height as the Festival glass - which makes it a lot more stable. It’s also ‘relatively’ inexpensive – for a Riedel, that is. Definitely my pick for refined outdoor dining.
The Riedel Ouverture glass on the right, Festival White Wine Glass on the left
When it comes to the dining table, we have a fifth consideration and that is the shape of our glass. Riedel and others have done quite a lot of research (and make a lot of money!) demonstrating that different glass bowl shapes suit different wine varieties better than others. Big white wines with more complex flavours (such as from oak) and higher alcohol, like oaked Chardonnay and Southern Rhone whites open up better in a wider bowl, the extra room inside allowing the flavour subtleties to come alive. Lighter-bodied more fruit driven wines like Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc do better in narrower glasses which concentrate those fruity aromas near the rim of the glass.
Pinot Noir and other light-bodied but often complex red wines are ideally served in glasses with large bowls that collect the delicate aromas and narrower at the top, to concentrate those same aromas. Glasses for full bodied, bold reds like Bordeaux blends and Syrah/Shiraz have a deeper bowl but more parallel sides – the space in the glass allows the harder aromas to soften and gives opportunity for the more delicate aromas to open.
Sparkling wines are better with a narrow bowl to concentrate the bubbles and avoid the wine heating too quickly which has given rise to the popular champagne flute. However, for better quality sparkling wines and particularly for vintage champagne you are better off with a slightly wider bowl that allows the aromas to open up without losing all the bubbles. The teardrop tulip glass below is an ideal compromise, but I am happy to serve bubbles at a party in my Spiegelau white wine glass. In fact, I prefer a white wine glass for older champagnes which are less about the bubbles and more about the wine complexities. A really cheap go-to is the standard ISO tasting glass – just fill it up, and it will also do perfectly fine for your fortified wines like Port or Muscat.
For sparkling: Perfect – tulip flute on the right, cheap & functional - ISO tasting glass
There are smaller glasses for fortified or dessert wines, and if you were to browse the Riedel website you’d discover that they have different glasses for Old World and New World Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, they have a different glass for medium to full bodied reds like Merlot or Sangiovese to the Bordeaux glass, and, where does it end? Wall Street Bankers and owners of large houses with huge display cabinets and gargantuan dining tables might indulge to the limit, but for the rest of us mere mortals??
This brings us to the idea of the universal wine glass. These are a “compromise” glass incorporating features from various wineglass styles that ideally will accentuate wine aromas while preserving wine structure. The most well-known is the Gabriel glass designed by Austrian wine critic Rene Gabriel who wanted to find one wine glass that would suit all varietals of wine. This is a quite fine machine-made lead-free crystal glass, with a very fine stem. The broader bowl bottom and the conical shape at the top allows for the top, middle and base aromas to emerge optimally with a broad flow distribution that is considered to deliver wine to the palate in a way that allows even the most subtle flavours expression. If you only had budget and/or storage room for a single set of glasses I’d say buy these, with at least two spares. The great thing about the Gabriel glass is that it’s been around a while and is likely to stick around even longer, so you will probably be able to replace the ones you break. These cost about $NZ30 each. If you just have this one wine glass on the table, it will still look beautiful.
Famed British MW and wine critic Jancis Robinson has collaborated with designer Richard Brendon to produce her own universal wine glass which at first glance seems like a slightly smaller Gabriel glass but deeper and exceptionally light – just 98gm compared with the Gabriel’s 146gm. The photo below shows the Gabriel and Robinson glasses side by side. These were over NZ$100 each when first released but are now being discounted. One NZ distributor is offering 6 for $340, just under twice the price of the Gabriel. I must confess I found these rather fragile – I bought two and immediately broke one while unpacking (a little carelessly). Perhaps offsetting the fragility is the exceptionally wide base (91mm) giving it stability against bumps. Nowadays my solitary Robinson glass stays in my wine cellar for when I am sampling a wine using the Coravin. My solitary Gabriel on the other hand is the go-to for a glass while sitting at the computer.
Universal Glasses: Gabriel glass on the left, Robinson glass on the right.
When I host a dinner party it is usually a mini-degustation – there might be four or more courses with wines to match. I like to dress the table with the three glasses below which will cover four to five wines beautifully.
My standard larger dinner party configuration: Riedel Riesling glass lookalike, Eisch Vinezza Pinot Noir Glass and Riedel Vinum Syrah Glass
The first is a homeware budget wine glass that is almost indistinguishable from the Riedel Riesling glass (the giveaway is the slightly thicker stem) at a quarter of the price but a bit more fragile – I had 12 and now I am down to 8. I use this for aromatic white wines such as Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and also for Rose.
The second glass is an Eisch Vinezza Pinot Noir glass, available quite cheaply in NZ, less than $70 for a four pack (I bought two packs). These are quite a robust glass, adequately but not especially fine, and also versatile. I will happily serve Chardonnay in them, before we move on to Pinot Noir. If I really want to impress I substitute the Riedel Extreme Pinot Noir glass shown below for the Eisch Vinezza but I only have four, so only for dinner with two guests.
Small dinner party for 4 configuration swapping in the more elegant Riedel Extreme Pinot Noir Glass for the Eisch Vinum
The third glass is the Reidel Vinum Syrah/Shiraz glass which does double duty for Syrah and Cabernet. I’m of two minds about Grenache/GSM and sometimes use this and other times the Pinot Noir glass. This is a lovely fine glass and easily the most expensive of the three, NZ$315 for 6, but sometimes Riedel discount 20% in sales.
If I serve champagne I use the teardrop tulip glass shown previously – I bought a six pack from a champagne house in France and so far they have survived intact. This is usually served to guests on arrival so I don’t need to further clutter the table. And for a dessert wine or fortified wine I use another Spiegelau Festival white wine glass but this one with a smaller 285ml capacity compared with the 400ml one I use as my party glass. It comes out to the table with dessert (or cheese) after everything else has been cleared.
The middle Festival glass is my go-to for white dessert wines, shown alongside the previously mentioned Festival glass for size comparison. The ISO taster on the right is perfect for Port and also fine for a white dessert wine or bubbles if you are on a budget.
Of course, your needs and aspirations are your own, but let’s recap on the principles we covered. First, everything is a compromise and you will have to make some with your glassware. Second, plan for breakages, buy extra glasses at the outset. Third, ensure your glasses are appropriate for their use, don’t use your fine tableware for parties and outside activity. If you only have the occasional party, it probably makes more sense to rent a crate of wineglasses, but have a box of robust cheapies for the BBQ. Fourth, think about size in relation to purpose. For the BBQ or party, smaller might be better, but to set a fine table, larger glasses impress. Fifth, decide on your glassware shape strategy – are you going all-purpose or variety specific?
Finally, even if you decide to splash out on variety specific Riedels or Zaltos, never lose sight of the most important thing – what’s in the glass!
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