I’m going to tell you a story about glasses – not the kind you wear, but the kind you drink from – at the end of the story you’re going to call me a liar and a charletan … but before you cast my ideas completely aside I ask that you at least try what I recommend. If you are like my brother, who thinks I’m full of “it” with all this wine stuff – including glassware – you’ll walk away from the homework I have assigned no worse for wear … but if you are like countless others who have tried this experiment and have seen the light; then you could be out a couple hundred bucks (max.), but the rest of your wine tasting and drinking days will be very happy ones. What on earth is this guy babbling about? You are probably asking yourself right now, I’ll tell you: the proper glassware for drinking wine. Here is my story.
Many years ago I went to a winery located just north of Toronto, Ontario, the owner there was doing something called a “Spiegelau Glass Tasting” … in his winery’s newsletter he proclaimed them “the saviour of good wine.” He had attended a similar tasting and had been blown away and now wanted to share that experience with his customers. A friend and I decided to drive the 30 minutes north to the winery and sit in on one of these tasting; prepared to debunk the whole thing. No way could glassware really make the difference, it’s all about the wine in the glass, not what it’s served in.
We arrived at the tasting and took our seats; a paper placemat was placed in front of us with 5 glasses lined up on it. There were 5 circles on the placemat and the circled were named within: Young White, Young Red, Chardonnay, Older Red, Dessert … a sixth glass was also present, a standard ISO tasting glass that you find in almost any tasting room – it’s the short stubby glass with the tapered top and bulbous bottom. Some of the staff was running around pouring wines into some of the glasses. As the winery owner, let’s call him Bill, took the floor at the front of the room ready to deliver his spiel, we had 6 glasses, but only 3 contained liquid wine. We were told to sniff and then taste the wine we currently had in our ISO glass … it smelled like a typical white wine, nothing much to write home about. Then we were told to pour the remaining wine into the “Chardonnay” glass and repeat the sniff and taste exercise.
Now wait just a minute! Had I not poured the wine from the one glass into the other I would have never believed it was the same wine. Buttery, vanilla, oaky, tropical fruit flavours all bursted from the glass on both the nose and taste. Then we poured the same wine into the ”Dessert” glass, and once again it became flabby with no depth or character to speak of.
We then proceeded to do this experiment with a Cabernet Sauvignon. First into the ISO glass, then into the now empty “Chardonnay” glass, and finally into the “Young Red” glass. What a phenomenal difference. In the two previous glasses the wine showed little signs of the black fruit, chocolate, cedar and cinnamon that it showed in the “proper” glass.
So what’s the secret? Spiegelau (now part of the Riedel glassware giant – and pioneer of this glassware “science”) was convinced that wine was being tasted incorrectly and the true tasting experience could only be enjoyed with proper glassware. “Proper” glassware for wine had to enhance certain aspects of certain wines while diminishing others. For example: a young tannic red had to have lots of aeration (hence a big glass); and the wine, because of the bitter tannins, had to be deposited away from the bitter receptors of the tongue and more towards those that pick up the sweet fruit aspects of the wine. Of course I am simplifying the process here (you can learn more by visiting www.riedel.com).
Right now you are probably thinking I’m so full of beans that my eyes are brown – well they are brown, but that is a natural occurrence and has nothing to do with what I have told you above. And nor do I have stocks in either Riedel or Spiegelau … I just want you to enjoy your wine drinking from now on. So here is your mission, if you decide to undertake it. The next time a glassware tasting by Riedel, Spiegelau, Ravenscroft or any other quality stemware manufacturer is being held, attend … don’t pay an arm and a leg for one – many of them are free (they want you to buy the glassware afterall). Keep an open mind, though a closed one works too, because they’ll open it for you. If you get nothing from it then at least you got to drink a few good wines and you got off the couch and out of the house for a few hours – but, if you truly taste the difference, if you are so convinced you end up buying a set, all that I ask is when you first hoist your new glasses that you at least drink to my health and happiness, because somewhere I am doing the exact same thing. Cheers.
