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  • Writer's pictureDeb

GLASSWARE: What you really "need"

Sippers!

GLASSWARE! Oh boy, I can see your eyes rolling already. Mine are after just reading an article about glassware where they recommend that “all you need are six styles”…..seriously six are "all you need”?

Come on…… who has room for 10 or 12 glasses of six styles. I have a Butler’s Pantry the size of a small bedroom and I don’t want to own six styles much less the “100s of styles”, noted in the article, that are available. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll geek out with the best of them when it comes to glassware, but let’s settle in for some real life sipping for a moment.

What you really need:

  • White Wine Glass: for whites and soft reds (not Pinot Noir).

  • Bordeaux/Cabernet/Merlot Shaped Glass: for big reds.

  • Burgundy/Pinot Noir Shaped Glass: only if you drink Pinot Noir, BUT they are truly essential if you drink Pinot Noir.

If you insist on tradition:

Add a flute for bubbles (the trend is to drink bubbles out of white wine glasses to avoid the carbon dioxide burning your nostrils)

That is it until you go to the next level of geek:

  • Add a Sauterne glass (sexist glass made), but only if you drink dessert wines.

  • Port glass (only if you drink ports) somehow this didn’t even make their list.

OK, OK, so if you total this up you get to six... I know I too can count, but really unless you drink all these styles of wine you don’t need all these glasses. A white and red will get you a long way. The trick is to make sure that they are the right white and red.

Crystal counts, but it doesn’t have to be Baccarat.


Plain uncut, clear, thin rimmed, and balanced are what is important. Make sure that it feels good to you when you hold it with liquid in the glass.


The shape matters also, hence the Pinot Noir class and the port glass. But most white wine and Bordeaux shaped glasses are fine.


General rule of thumb on price, pay per glass what you pay for a bottle of wine. A hundred-dollar glass isn’t going to make your $15 bottle of wine taste like a hundred-dollar bottle of wine. In fact, it may show the flaws in the wine and do just the opposite of what you want or think it will do.

Stop by the store, or give us a call! We can help you, and we won’t make you redesign your kitchen storage just to own great stemware.

- Deb


PS: if you want to and you have room, I’m happy to discuss wine glasses that are made for new world wines vs old world wine. Now folks we are beyond six but that is a rabbit hole you need to decide if you want to go down or not. (Buy a cabinet for the basement for extra storage and we’ll talk, just meet me at the bottom of the rabbit hole, I’m already down here) 😊

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