What if you could have one wine glass that amplifies every wine, allowing the aromas to bloom while also delivering it to the palate just right? A beautiful glass, balanced and elegant. Not only would that glass bring the best out of every wine, with every sip being an experience, but it would bring the best out of the drinker, making them exude style and debonair. What a concept! We have touched on the subject of wine glass varieties before and, I hate to tell you, but the glass (shape and style) does matter, but by how much? Do you really need a specific wine glass to get the most out of every wine type, or could you get away with just one? I set out to answer these questions. I gathered a team of random wine lovers and sat them down, blindfolded.
Each blindfolded taster had five wine glasses in front of them and a handler standing next to them. The directions were as follows; “You will try three total wines, a sparkling, a white, and a red. To start I will pour the sparkling wine into all five of your glasses. Your handler will hand you a glass and you will taste the wine. When you are ready for the next glass tell your handler. Try as many times as you want, going back to previous glasses as you desire. Once you have tasted wine from all five glasses you will tell your handler which glass gave you the best experience. Once everyone has picked their glass we will move to the next wine.”
The glasses were a champagne flute, a standard White Wine glass, a Universal glass, a Burgundy glass, and a Bordeaux glass. I asked the tasters prior if anyone thought that a true Universal wine glass existed. The answer was a resounding NO! No bias here. At the end of each wine, I asked the tasters to take off their blindfolds so that they could see what glass gave them the best experience for that wine. Well, even I was surprised with the results! The winner of the Sparkling (which was a nice Prosecco) was the most shocking, a tie between the Burgundy and the Bordeaux glasses with the Universal glass coming in second! Not a single taster preferred the Prosecco out of the elegant wine flute or white wine glass, and instead everyone enjoyed it more from the bigger wine glasses on the table. If you find this hard to believe I encourage you to try it yourself! I have known for a long time that ALL good sparkling wine is better from a true, larger, wine glass. Next the white, which was a Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc. 75% of the tasters chose the universal wine glass, with 25% choosing the white wine glass.
Finally, the red, which was a Napa Syrah. Another tie, this time with no second place. 50% of the tasters chose the Bordeaux glass and 50% chose the Universal glass.
What does this tell us? Can a certain glass be perfect for each type of wine? Yes, but can the right Universal glass be the best all around? Yes! At the end all of the tasters were amazed, and walked away with a true appreciation of what the right wine glass can do while also learning
that the right wine glass might be the same for many wines! If you are looking to add to your collection or start getting nice wine glasses where either space or budget is your limit, then consider a Universal wine glass. And, to answer the last question everyone probably has at this point; “what was the Universal Wine glass used?” It was from Gabriel Glas. They are not a sponsor, but after A LOT of research and my own personal testing I think they make the best Universal wine glass available. So, is there truly a universal wine glass? Yes, so…Cheers to that!