The Right Glasses and Their Importance in Wine: Necessity or Show-off?

So, does size matter? In wine at least, of course it does, if we are talking about the glass that receives it. The shape too!

It is not a luxury, it is not showing off; it is simply wine culture to seek the greatest possible enjoyment from the bottle we have chosen.

Fine, one does not need to go as far as carrying glasses from home to the taverna, as this writer, who cannot quite handle it, does; but “asking for” the right glass will significantly increase the overall enjoyment.

Common ground for everything you read below is the following:

The glass should have a stem, so that we can hold it there, without our palm warming the contents, nor the oils of our hand leaving marks on it. Now, if yacht owners and owners of a holiday home atop a hill in Mykonos are reading us, we will make an exception and allow them the stemless glasses that have appeared lately, so they do not fall and break in the meltemi wind!

The glass should be thin, so that the whole thing is light and “clean” and helps the overall drinking experience.

In harmony with the above, we prefer crystal glasses, because on the one hand they are light and on the other they have a smoother surface that helps bring out the wine’s character.

We consider that the ideal amount of wine inside the tulip is up to its maximum diameter, that is, roughly one third to one quarter of its total capacity.

The rim should definitely curve inward. Old vintage grandma’s glasses that look like funnels are completely unsuitable.

We said size matters. Very small glasses will not do. In general, look for something roughly in the 250 to 350 ml range.

Today, the major glass manufacturers have a huge range of glass models, and they even specialise them by grape/wine variety! It is not a bad thing to invest with such detail, but I believe you can perfectly well do the job with just two glasses, make it three to be even fancier.

Let’s look together at which they are:

1. The basic one: a Bordeaux-type glass for all wines (except those mentioned in 2)

It is the master-key glass that will flawlessly do its job with all whites and reds, even sparkling and sweet ones!

Any white that does not have extensive barrel use will feel at ease. Try tank Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and also Assyrtikos, Moschofileros, Robolas, and most Vidianos and Savatianos.

Of course, in this glass we will also try all the sparkling wines, and certainly not in the classic long, narrow flutes which, yes, impress the eye with the bubble’s journey but remove any aromatic enjoyment. Now, of course, if you have no choice, but your sparkling is something very basic, like a simple Prosecco or a tank Muscat with no particular aromatic complexity, the world will not end with flutes.

Roses and reds will also perform well, especially those that are fresher or with measured barrel use. The varieties of the eponymous Bordeaux region, that is, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, as well as our own Agiorgitiko, fresh Mavrotragano and Kotsifali, fit just fine in this glass.

Likewise, sweet and fortified wines (sherry, port, Mavrodaphnes), although they will feel better in relatively smaller glasses, will perform very respectably in our basic glass as well.

2. The large, wide Burgundy-type glass

With this glass, which is larger in volume, wider and shorter than the previous one, you will notice better performance with oaked Chardonnays and reds that have plenty of tannic presence and elevated acidity, such as Nebbiolo (Barolo/Barbaresco), Burgundy Pinot Noir, the recently fashionable Etna, and of course our own Xinomavros.

In this glass, red varieties that put forward aromatic elegance and introversion, rather than intensity and high alcohol, will generally feel good.

In general, larger-volume glasses make the wine appear less alcoholically warm.

3. Optionally, and only if we are after the detail that will make the difference, we can invest in a glass larger and taller than the classic Bordeaux, the one some call a Syrah glass. The benefit here is visible in fuller, more voluminous reds with more alcohol, such as (obviously) Syrah and Shiraz, and generally rich New World wines. Try Greek expressions of these varieties without fear, such as the Cabernets of Trifylia and the Peloponnese in general, or the Syrahs of Crete, and you will be surprised.

Tips for care and storage:

Washing: With great care and ideally by hand. We avoid the dishwasher because the glasses tend to dance around inside and eventually break, and they usually also pick up smells of either detergent or food (e.g. egg).

Drying: Hung upside down at first, and then with special microfibre cloths, not a regular towel, which will scratch them and may impart smells.

Storage: Great care in the storage cabinet. Many of them smell dangerously strongly, from varnishes to … mustiness and damp.

Presentation: on the table, never upside down, since the rim is extremely sensitive.

Finally, if you have more than one wine to serve, ideally use a different glass.

Cheers!