Page 14 - Leisure Living

Wine Glasses Do
Make A Difference
By Donniella Winchell, Executive Director, Ohio Wine Producers Association
Most people who are even moderately ‘serious’ about wine appreciation realize that wine should not be served in a beer stein. There are many reasons, why, over the centuries, wine glasses have a stem, a medium to large bowl and are mostly undecorated.
A slender, graceful stem on a wineglass not only contributes to the sense of quality, it is also functional: A wine which needs to be enjoyed cold will retain its ideal temperature longer into the evening. However, if the wine should be served closer to room temperature, the taster can simply slip his or her hand up around the bowl to warm it slightly. A bowl that is colored or has excessive decoration would detract from the wine to be enjoyed. A bulky glass with a thick bead would not provide as enjoyable an experience as a lovely crystal glass with a ‘cut’ rim. Some even believe that the shape of a glass can be important. Since wine is truly a sensory experience, the correct kind and shape of glass contributes to the way a wine looks [the sense of sight], the aroma and bouquet [the sense of smell] and the finish [the sense of taste.]
Sight: The shape and type of glass creates different colorations in the wine just poured. Looking down from the top through the wine into the glass, the various hues and color intensities may be dramatically different, depending on the shape and height of the bowl. With tall crystal glasses, the sides of the bowl almost disappear
and all you see is the wine. With a thick, heavily faceted glass, the reflections off the facets will create shadows and variations in color beyond those which actually exist in the liquid. When the sides of the bowl are un-faceted, but the glass has very thick sides, the wine appears to be lighter in the middle and ringed by a dark circle.
Smell: Glasses with a wide base and narrow rim bowl allow the many aromas [young, fresh smells] and bouquet [more mature, complex smells] to accumulate and concentrate as the wine is gently swirled. An open, wide rimmed glass allows the aromas to be dispersed, permits more aggressive swirling [and oxidation] to intensify the wine’s ‘nose’ for the taster. A large bowl allows for additional surface area, additional evaporation and more release of the complexities as it is swirled. When just a few ounces are poured into a large bowl, the taster can swirl with more intensity [thus releasing more aromatics] than if the glass was tall and slender.
Taste: A famous Austrian glass company, headed by George Riedel conducts hundreds of tastings a year around the world demonstrating the quality of his family’s fine stemware which is for some, the ‘gold standard’ in quality wine glasses. He purports that the shape and construction of a glass is critical to the appreciation of a fine wine. [While his stems can be very costly, several other glass manufacturers like Schott Zwiesel offer lovely, very affordable stems which work very well.] Riedel’s philosophy is that the tongue has thousands of taste buds clustered in different parts of its surface. Sweet in the front, salty and sour along the sides and bitter in the back. His company believes that the glass should deliver its liquid first to the portion of the mouth which best accentuates that variety’s ideal characteristics. Even skeptics, once they sit through a Riedel demonstration, usually recognize the accuracy of his convictions.
So for those who want to enjoy all that a bottle of great wine offers, an investment in good quality stemware is worth the costs involved.
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14 |LeisureLiving Autumn 2015
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