Facts You Should Know About Wine Glass Shapes

Tuesday, June 02, 2015 wine glass shapes , wine glasses 0 Comments

I’m not a wine expert by any means, oh no. Me? I just design the wine labels. But I do love a drop of wine (obviously!) and did get to thinking… why do we have different wine glass shapes?
I’ve been searching for nice wine glasses for photography purposes.  One thing I didn’t quite realise was all the different types available.  Don’t know about you, but when I’m faced with too much choice it drives me into a bit of a quandary!

I’m definitely one for always trying to keep things simple. So, looked up the science behind different wine glass shapes and here’s what I discovered…

The first thing to know is that there are in fact four crucial parts which make up the wine glass --

- The Base
- The Stem
- The Bowl
- The Rim

The Bowl 

It seems the Bowl is the main feature of any wine glass.  Typically the base will be wider at the bottom so that the wine can be swirled.  It's the action of swirling that releases the aroma of the wine for which real wine experts will be able to detect the most slightest of aromas.  It's also for this reason it's best to fill your wine glass just a third of the way up to allow the wine to be swirled.

The Stem 

The wine glass has a long stem so that it can be held stably without touching the bowl.  Don't know about you, but if a waiter places his or her hands around the bowl, especially near the rim, when serving in a restaurant, I find it a bit of a turn off!

An excellent waiter will go as far as just to hold the base and not even touch the stem.

The Rim

A fine wine glass will have a thin rim because this is the part which meets the lips. And, so of course, the thinner and more delicate the glass, the easier the transition is.   To me, the rim is the most important feature.  I always fancied a set of champagne glasses, the saucer type, not flute.  Having spent more than a few pennies on a gorgeous set of champagne glasses, I was more than a little disappointed to discover they were awkward to drink from. This was because the rim curved inwards and made it difficult to drink from.  And so the quest continues for the perfect champagne glass!

The Base

Well, obvious I guess why this element of the wine glass is important, quite simply without a base, we have no wine!

Conclusion

Real wine experts may be quite fanatical on their choice of wine glass shape, insisting on a different shape glass for each specific type of wine.  But for most of us it's probably just good to know that a smaller bowl is required for white wine than red.  And a flute for champagne or sparkling wine which is "etched" is best as it encourages lots of bubbles to form.  Bubbles will only form on surfaces that are not smooth. You may wonder why if you pour your sparkling wine into a plain smooth wine glass that it may not give you the fizz you were expecting.  So if you have a flute of sparkling wine, the bubbles will bring all the aromas to the top of the flute without the need to swirl.

So, it's best to use a flute for sparkling wines and champagne. And perfectly okay to have one kind of glass for either red or white which is much the same as second from your left in the image above.