Wine glasses

Start with the shape, because that decides most of it. A round, wide bowl puts a large surface of wine in contact with air and pushes the aromas upwards: that is the Burgundy shape, which you will find among the red wine glasses in sizes from 75 to 96 cl, meant for pinot noir and other grapes where scent matters more than structure. A taller, straighter bowl sends the wine deeper into your mouth and tames firm tannins: the Bordeaux shape, usually around 55 to 75 cl. For white the opposite applies, and a slim bowl of 20 to 35 cl keeps the wine cool and the fruit tight, which is what you will find among the white wine glasses.

Capacity confuses a lot of people, because you never fill a 55 cl glass to the rim. A pour is roughly a fifth of the bowl, so a generous bowl holds as much wine as a small glass; that wine simply gets more air. If you want one range for everything, choose something between 43 and 55 cl. If you are after the very largest bowls, the large wine glasses have a page of their own. Finally, think in numbers: at home two glasses per guest is enough, in hospitality you keep two to three times your number of covers so a clean set is always ready.

Pour up to the widest point of the bowl and no higher. Above that the glass narrows, and you need exactly that space to gather aromas and to swirl without spilling. Room temperature is a misunderstanding from a time of colder houses: red wine shows best between 16 and 18 degrees, white wine between 8 and 12. Always hold the glass by the stem or the foot, because a hand around the bowl lifts the temperature noticeably within a few minutes.

Young, firm red wine softens as soon as it gets air. Half an hour in a decanter does more than an hour of waiting in the open bottle, simply because the surface of the wine in the decanter is many times larger. With old wine you decant for the opposite reason: to leave the sediment behind. Wine does not always have to go into the glass neat either: a sangria calls for a generous bowl with ice and fruit, where the bowl mainly serves as a container. If you serve several wines in a row, go from light to full and from dry to sweet, so that no following glass falls flat.

Lead-free crystal glass is thinner and clearer than tempered soda-lime glass, but that does not make it weaker: professional ranges are developed to survive years of daily dishwasher cycles. Damage almost always happens at two moments. The first is drying, when you hold the foot and turn the bowl. All the strain then lands on the join between bowl and stem, and that is exactly where it snaps. Hold the bowl and turn the cloth inside it.

The second moment is the dishwasher basket. Place glasses so that stems do not touch, choose a short programme at a moderate temperature and take them out as soon as it finishes, because leftover steam settles as limescale. That dull haze comes off with a dash of vinegar in the rinsing water and a lint-free cloth. Hand washing is fine too, but rinse thoroughly with hot water afterwards, because soap residue leaves a thin film that you will find back in the smell of the wine. Store glasses upright so the thin rim rests on nothing.

If you already know which wine is going into the glass, you can click straight through to the matching shape in the menu alongside. For sparkling wine a different bowl applies, and you will find flutes, coupes and tulip shapes for prosecco and cava among the champagne glasses. If you are looking for a brand rather than a shape, the major houses each have their own page. If wine is left in the bottle, wine stoppers keep an opened bottle tasting good for a few days. And if you want wine as the base for an aperitif, a kir royal is the simplest recipe there is.