Dear Wine Guy ? Does the type of wine glass you drink wine from really matter?

 This is a frequent question for me, but depending on my mood I sometimes give different answers. Sometimes I say: ?You need to get to the airport ? would you rather ride in a stretch limo or a Yugo?? Both are vessels designed to transport people, so it becomes a matter of personal comfort and luxury. So (I believe) is the great stemware debate ? a glass is a glass, however, there is no doubt in my mind that a great wine in a plastic cup will never taste as good as it would in fine crystal. To me, there?s just something about the style, form, and feeling of sipping from crystal, and certain glass shapes and styles do, in fact, enhance the tasting experience. Large wine ?bowls? tend to bring out the best in heavy red wines, mostly because of the aeration necessary to allow the wine to open up. White wines are less restrained and enjoy a smaller, simpler glass as they do most of their magic on your palate quickly and quietly. Though I have never personally experienced it, Riedel can demonstrate the difference of tasting the same wine in two different glasses and have offered to provide a demonstration here at Attrezzi - so go figure!

Riedel is solely responsible for much of the concern, producing approximately thirty-five thousand different glass styles specifically tailored to your geographic location, type of wine you are enjoying, and color of your shirt (well, I may be stretching it a bit) but the number of different stems and styles they produce is staggering. Riedel pioneered the notion of using a specific glass for every variety in 1961 and have kept it going since.

Now the real question, that is, the one that?s hidden just below the surface, is to what degree does your glassware matter. I think we can all agree that a nice glass will enhance the drinking experience but answering this question is where it really gets interesting.

The theory is that every type of wine (Cab, Chard, Merlot) each has a different composition, and therefore a unique aromatic release when placed into a glass, thus a stem that properly introduces the aromatics to your palate can only enhance your drinking pleasure, after all, most of wine?s flavor is through our sense of smell. Don?t believe me? Try a glass with your nose plugged some time and see what happens! The second principal is based on the ?delivery? of the wine onto your palate; some shapes are better suited for placing the wine correctly on your palate.

Bored yet? It?s at this point I began to lose interest. Spending all that time thinking and not sipping just isn?t for me. But for those with a real thirst for details, head over to Riedel?s website. There is more information there in the ?Shape and Pleasure? section than one could ever need (or afford).

So, yes, your glassware matters, and I leave it to you to decide how much it matters. The more refined your palate becomes, so will your choice of stemware, but that is all part of the natural progression of wine appreciation. At some point on all our lives we all had to think about eventually putting our beer in a glass (doesn?t mean you still can?t drink from the can!) So I leave the decision up to you.

We at Attrezzi work hard to supply you with nothing but the best, so we keep a limited selection of Riedel stems available. We could never represent the entire line, but like to cover the essentials with a Cab, a Chard, and sometimes a Pinot stem. So if you get an itch to upgrade those Libby Glass stems obtained from the tag sale down the street, or the dogs and kids wipe out your current cache of stems, you know where to come.

And for those of you that saw that geeky wine movie? I guarantee no wine snob worth his salt would ever dump a great wine into a paper cup ? no way ? never!

Copyright 2005, Rich Collins, Attrezzi