Most people arrive at an event and look around to see who’s there, to see if they recognize anyone, and very often, check out what everyone is wearing. Well, I take a slightly different approach. When I arrive at an event, I look to see what people are drinking and how they are drinking it. My different approach is even more poignant when the event is one where wine is involved, especially “expensive” wine. Anyone can go out and buy a gorgeous gown, a perfectly tailored suit, cobble together a stylish outfit, BUT…if they are drinking wine; what wine glasses are being used and how are they holding it? That two-part question will tell me so much about you, especially the second part. Don’t get me wrong, that sounds very judgmental yet it is not meant to be, at least not any more than you looking around and checking out what everyone is wearing. So, what does it tell me?
First, a little history of the wine glass and a review of its parts. The modern wine glass is comprised of the bowl, the stem, and the foot. Modern glass was pioneered by the Venetians. At first, glass was very brittle and was mainly for decoration. This caused early wine glasses to be very thick, with thick rims and bowls sporting very short and stout stems with a chunky foot. As glass-making improved in the early 1700s everything started to slim out and the shape of the modern, elegant, wine glass began to evolve.
How we drank wine also evolved, pushed in part by the German Riedel family. The best example is sparkling wine. For decades almost all sparkling wine was drunk out of a wine glass with a very wide and shallow bowl. That allowed for easy drinking but the shape did not complement the bubbles. The trend moved to a very sleek, skinny, tall bowl, sporting a slender stem and petite foot, aka the Champagne Flute. This shape accentuated the bubbles, yet at the cost of the actual wine. Then the Riedel family started to experiment with different shapes of glasses for different types of wine. They claim that the shape of the bowl will drastically affect your wine experience. Independent wine studies back up some, not all, of their claims. Staying with our sparkling wine example; it has now been shown that drinking just about any kind of sparkling wine out of a “universal” white wine glass will give you the best-balanced experience.
I am a big proponent of the “universal” wine glass for color, one glass for almost all reds and another for almost all whites. I usually drink rosé out of whatever I have close at hand. The most important aspect of a wine glass; that is has a stem! I am sure some folks out there will tell me of an ideal time and place to drink wine out of stemless wine glasses. If you don’t really care about the wine that you are putting in your mouth then stemless is fine. Also, if you go to a wine tasting where they are using something other than a modern looking wine glass steer clear.
Why do I have such hatred towards stemless wine glasses?Because of how you have to hold it. If your only glass option is stemless then you are forced to hold the wine glass by cupping your hand around the bowl. By doing so you are unnecessarily heating up your wine, making it taste worse. The ONLY time cupping-the-bowl is appropriate is if the wine is too cold. Everyone starts their wine journey by cupping-the-bowl of normal stemmed wine glasses. It feels natural, safe, comfortable, but just like during any formal education, you learn how to properly do things, such as how to hold your wine glass. The correct way is by holding the stem while leveraging the foot into your palm. This prevents your 98.6 degree hand from prematurely destroying the wine in your glass.
Ever walked into a "fancy" wine event and seen self-proclaimed "Wine Snobs" telling everyone everything about wine as their hand cups the bowl of their wine glass? They can be dressed to the nines, but if they are cupping the bowl of their wine glass then they are revealing a lot about themselves. Do what you want, but if you are reading this article now you know. So, if you want to look your best at your next soiree while drinking wine, find a stemmed wine glass and hold it there. Cheers to that!