Wine Glasses…Does Shape Matter?

When using a wine glass, you may consider the shape of the glass you’re drinking from and you may consider the quality of your glass.  Which one is more important or even necessary?

This can be a personal choice but our opinion is that while shape does matter, quality is so much more important!  Most people don’t have room to store upwards of 18 different shaped glasses just to support their broad palette of loving all that is wine!  Shape can make a difference, and in 2015 Japanese researchers reported in Chemistry World, that the concentration distribution of alcohol leaving a glass found that both temperature and shape impacted the taste.  So…it is proven and we do believe you should have a glass for your Whites, Sparkling, Bordeaux, and Pinot’s but going any deeper than that isn’t necessary…unless you have unlimited storage and cash! ????

All that said, the quality of your glass can DEFINITELY affect the taste of your wine.  So much so that Mike and I have gone to the extent of bringing in our own wine glasses to our favorite restaurant when we brought in a special bottle of 2007 Gemstone Cabernet Sauvignon to share on our anniversary.  We have been going to this restaurant for years so knew they would pour our bottle into those super thick rimmed glasses that could basically drop on a floor and bounce up…you know the ones I’m talking about! 

Now, a quality (probably expensive) glass will not change how two buck chuck tastes but a terrible glass will detour the taste and appreciation of a very nice bottle of wine.   You won’t get those fruits and aromas and experience that tasting a wine for the first time can bring.

Zalto glasses are definitely our preferred choice but do the test yourself if you can…even compare a mason jar to your wine glass.  The choice is yours…shape or quality…or both!?  We go with quality…and maybe shape…I mean, I’m not going to drink a Sauvignon Blanc in my Bordeaux Glass…we aren’t Neanderthals ????!!

Here are some of our favorite glasses

High End – Zalto Universal Glass

Medium of the road – Riedel Vinum Extreme Pinot Noir (2 pk)

Medium of the road – Riedel Veritas Cabernet/Merlot (2 pk)

Budget Friendly – Nachtman Vivendi (4 Pk)

Riedel Sister glass line

Home is Where the Wine is!