The questions often come mid-conversation: “What about wine glasses? Do they matter? What is with those funky shaped ones I’ve seen?” As I’ve been answering the same questions to several acquaintances, that tells me it’s time to write a post on this topic. Here’s my wine glass FAQ:
• Wine glasses add to the experience of tasting and pairing by helping to deliver the wine well -much like the tires and suspension do for luxury car engines- except that wine glasses work in terms of color, flavor, nose, and temperature. You want a thin-walled, perfectly clear, stemmed glass as a starting point.
• Next, for all intents and purposes, you can ignore the legs
(or tears, as the French say) unless you enjoy the process, as they offer little ‘real’ value in examining or enjoying wine. If you do’t know what wine ‘legs’ or ‘tears’ are, the term refers to the tiny wine streams that run down the glass back into the wine after swirling in the glass. While legs _can_ be used to indicate the alcohol content in a wine, they also change based on surface tension in the wine and it’s my experience that the adage, ‘the greater the legs, the greater the wine” is hogwash, plain and simple. You can reduce legs by covering the glass with your hand (simple physics, really) which changes the surface tension. Moving on…
• For white wines, the taller, more narrow glass helps keep the wine at its colder temperature which is ideally served around 50°F. Also, the narrow rim helps project the subtle scents of white wines to your nose for enjoyment. Finally the tall rim allows you to view the color of the concentrated wine well by presenting more of its volume to your eye.
• For reds, ideally you want a larger, rounder bowl with a wide opening to enjoy the rich and complex flavors found in red wines. Shallower bowls won’t hold a cold temperature but reds are ideally served around 65°F. The wide bowl allows the wine to have more exposure to oxygen, important to the development of complex nose, flavor, and finish. This type of glass also aids inspection when turning the glass on its side to examine the color- to see the true shades of the wine, and inspect the edges for browning in older wines. For softer red like pinot noir, a teardrop glass is ideal: bottoms are wider and the rims narrow to allow maximum aeration and capture of the perfume.
• Do wine glasses matter? Only in the drinker’s appreciation of them, which is why restaurants pay close attention to detail here. Restaurants put great care into glass detail so that you will get maximum appreciation of an expensive choice. They (should) insure the wine has been kept at the proper temperature, stored well, and is uncorked and served properly. So why not do that at home? Using proper care for temp, storing, and serving only serves to increase the appreciation of highly specialized creations, and that in itself is worth the pomp and circumstance, much like the tea ritual. Have you noticed the incredible detail that the beer maker Stella has with it’s glassware, proper pour and serving? They haven’t missed a trick in how to insure the drinker appreciates the product fully.
• What is with those funky shaped glasses? The stemless glassware popular from Fusion, Reidel and Spiegelau are beautiful to behold, as modern works of art, and practical glassware. The stem is the most often broken part of a glass, and stemless glasses are less likely to be knocked over. The removal of the stem makes the wine enjoyable in another fashion, while making it harder to judge color well and causing the wine to lose temperature and warm too quickly. I love my stemless glasses that allow me to enjoy the nose more, but I don’t use them at dinner parties.
• What do I do personally? Well, honestly we have more glasses than we use or need at my home. I have two sets of every day wine glasses – one Bordeaux-type glass which is perfect for most whites, and a pinot noir set. I have a pair of Reidel O pinot noir glasses that are ideal for my forensic criticism of color and the elusive olfactory qualities of some wines. Most of the pictures I’ve taken from our home use the pinor noir stemmed glasses. For our formal dinnerware, we have a set of apertif crystal that is barely used, fancy champagne glasses that are barely used, and Bordeaux-style wine glasses that are heavily used for both reds and whites of all types. But the fancy crystal is lovely to use several times a year, and we enjoy it wholeheartedly.
•This is what I suggest to wine drinkers who ask what kind of glasses they need:
one style a glass, the basic red “Bordeaux” wine glass (like the one on the right) should serve for 95% of their needs. Unless you’re a sommelier, you need only supply more types of glasses as you require them. If I were to take you wine glass shopping and we saw an array like the one at the top of this blog post, I’d suggest you choose either the third glass from the right OR the third from the left, whichever would complement your households glassware and your hand. Both are the right shape, -and while some wine glass designs are very specific for the wine or grape, how much bouquet they can deliver to the nose and how the wine is delivered to the mouth- the one three from the left is simply just a slightly larger version from the one that is third from the right in that group.
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Tags: Commentary, Stemware, Wine, Wine Commentary
jvb uncorked 
Going Once, Going Twice….SOLD!
23 MayHave you bought wine at auction? I have. An exciting, energetic process, the thrill of bidding against others for items in demand can be invigorating. I’ve bought many things at auction over the years. Perhaps the best was a set of ten Biedermeier dining room chairs. That success was a keen eye paired with luck. The worst item I’ve won at auction was a time-share family vacation. It was a promising win that soured on us when it expired before we could take it. In the middle of those extremes are all kinds of things, from Yankees tickets to vintage microphones to, you guessed it, wine.
Purchasing wine at auction has highs and lows of its own, and I’ve been on both sides of that bottle as well.
When buying wine at auction, you MUST know you have a chance of buying wine that’s bad. Corks go, bottle seep, and while they may proclaim “removed from professional storage,” that doesn’t mean the bottles were always cared for, that cellars didn’t have problems, that a collector didn’t leave a case in the sun just for a few hours. The wine can’t tell you its history even when it’s in your mouth. We can only guess at the truth.
When looking at auction lots, though, it is easy to get excited in the bidding process. There are classic vintages of top Chateaux, very rare finds, multiple bottles, mixed lots, unusual sizes…the chance to get a great deal on something missed by the others.
Wine auction buyers seem to forget what they stand to lose and focus on the positive. I think you have to focus on the positive to actually buy at auction, as reluctant buyers can get lost in the sea of paddles. But a savvy shopper realizes there will be some quantity of merchandise lost or discarded in a lot. For example, the differences in shoulder level alone in the pictures here demonstrate that the bottles will have differences. If that much air or seepage occurred in storage, how has it affected the product within?
Not until the bottle is received and opened do you have any idea how you fare with an auction purchase. Unlike the ’07 Bordeaux I recently reviewed , a corked auction wine is NOT going to be a $12 wasted investment and easy to forgive. I have experienced extreme highs, amazing Chateaux, Sauternes and Burgundies from auction, as well as some real disasters.
I have watched as the cost of auction wines have skyrocketed as the Asian wine markets do battle with the North American and European buyers. Many auctions are now based in Hong Kong or “Internet Only,” in addition to the classic Sotheby’s and Christie’s Fine Wine Auctions across the globe.
The latest trend has been interesting to watch as buyers have passed on expensive lots en masse. Lots that start in the tens of thousands of dollars go without a single bid, and the auction house sends out an e-mail the following morning, offering the lot at a reduced reserve price. Some are snatched up, some ignored and back to the cave, and others quietly sold to buyers at a later date.
Has the vintage market reached its zenith? I’d like to think so, but as new collectors increase their wealth and older collectors find wines they loved and want to experience again, possibly not. Limited vintages will always be desirable. Too, there are only so many bottles of the 1982 Mouton Rothschild, although the recent discovery of high level wine forging has brought a new focus on qualifying lots and soured some collectors on ‘holy grail’ wines that are too good to be true.
Are there plenty of new wines within reach? Yes, but new wines that can be drunk young may be something entirely different after maturation, and a bottle bought at auction may be perfect right now. New wines are more promising each year, with new terroir and wines from all across the world competing with historic powerhouses. The only thing they lack is age. The extraordinary 2009 and 2010 seasons have demonstrated another huge push in wine prices from classic chateaux. But after experiencing fewer purchases of expensive wine futures, some vineyards are promising a reduction in wines starting 2011.
Auctions offer the wine lover some rare opportunities, but the path can be littered with potholes. If you bid, be a savvy shopper and be prepared for some loss in every lot. I have a great story about this… but I’ll save it for another time.
Á votre santé!
http://www.christies.com/wine/
http://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/wine/overview.html
http://auction.morrellwineauctions.net/
Bottle photo credits from Morrel Wine Auctions: wines I bid on…and lost.
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Tags: Commentary, Wine Commentary