Does the proper wine glass matter?

When I grew up, it certainly didn’t matter to me!  I cared less,  if I had my beer, mixed drink or wine out of the can, bottle, glass or despite the so called “proper” glass.  But growing up and the ongoing gain of experience, do to working in the restaurant and hotel industry, have change that a bit. 

At my house, I pride myself of having the glass categories covered, and I truly dislike when I spend a good amount of money at a restaurant, and they don’t even offer the proper glassware.   Ok, but this hasn’t really cut into the subject of “does it matter”!  I say “IT DOES!” And here are some reason as to why it matters

 to use proper glassware at all times.  Today, we will start with the champagne flute.  As with other stemware, the actual stem is important, as it allows you to hold the glass without impacting the temperature of the wine.  An important factor that plays a special role in champagne flutes is the nucleation.  No, we are not covering nuclear science today, but click here to read more about that.  For us today, all it matters is that the proper balance of nucleation is vital as it helps to form the bubbles.  Too much would cause too much carbonation and bye-bye fizziness, bye-bye lovely champagne!  The reason as too why champagne flutes are skinny and narrow has the same relationship.  Slow down carbonation for longer, well balanced enjoyment.  But what about that bowl, margerita glass looking thing?  The one, we see in the old movies where they have those beautiful free flowing champagne towers?  Those are properly called champagne coupe or saucer and became popular here in the US in the 1930’s and lasted until the 60’s.  The style of champagne back than was not nearly as dry as today’s brut and the broad surface making it very suitable for the “sweeter” styles back then.  And as mentioned above, it allowed great presentations for the famous free flow of champagne or otherwise known sparkling wines when building champagne towers. 

Tomorrow we will cover white and red wine glasses and the difference of the individual kinds within those two. 

Personal side note for all wine lovers and collectors.  The following is my motto and I tell my wife that when I bought another great bottle of wine…

Honey, it is like buying shoes!  Collecting or buying wine is no different than that.  We are always on the lookout for the next great addition to the collection J

Feel free to use and or alter my quote, but I don't take any responsibility shall you get in trouble with your significant other.