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Wine Glass Fashionista

By Sylvia Jansen, DipWSET, CSW, Sommelier

There was a time when a Champagne glass had a flared top that perched inside a larger bowl with water to rinse out the sediment—at the time, a useful function. Somewhere, we graduated to a Champagne saucer to let the fizz fly. Then it was the most fashionable thing to drink bubbles from something resembling a test tube to hold in the fizz. On one visit to France not long ago, I tasted Champagne from small flutes, large tulip glasses, and even larger, rounded balloon-shaped glasses, depending on the establishment’s approach. For still wines, we have gone through almost every conceivable shape, from triangles to tulips to tumblers, and every size from shot-glass-volume to the size of a small beachball. We have collected cut lead crystal because a matched set of really heavy stemware was terribly fashionable. We have turned to coloured glasses that matched the dining room décor and to silver goblets that matched absolutely nothing. We have lifted glasses painted with sayings like “That’s what the rim is for” or “Hold my calls” to match our mood. The wine glass world has truly been ruled by form and fashion over function.

Not so long ago, a passionate glassmaker decided that every different wine should have a different glass. The function was no longer simply to hold liquid or suit the moment but to interpret the grape variety as it met the palate. That function was expressed in a thin blown-glass design. As a response to the dizzying array of choices, glass designers are now offering up the universal glass (something many tables had all along, but just by accident, and not usually like these new designs).

How to select from these? Consider for a moment the functions of the wine glass. Some people will say that if it holds liquid, it is a good glass. Beyond that, we should expect a glass to allow us to assess the wine’s colour and appearance and to interpret and appreciate the aromas and flavours we love so much.

If we translate these functions to design, that takes us to a vessel that is inert, transparent, and unadorned by markings, engravings, or cut designs, with a bowl taller than it is wide. A thin rim allows the wine to flow onto the palate (really, this is true) much better than if it spills out from a rounded, coffee-mug-like rim. Usually, this dictates that the vessel is also made of glass. The stem is also useful, by the way: that glass stick allows the taster to swirl the wine and invite aromas to lift. A stem also means the wine will stay cooler (provided the user holds said stem and not the bowl). A poolside or patio calls for something unbreakable, so enter the insulated stainlesssteel tumbler. Here, functions of safety and convenience rule over transparency (and hold the wine closer to the desired temperature).

All things considered, the glass that brings the best from the wine is the best glass. For sparkling, I confess to being in the stemmed, blown, simple universal glass camp. But because I realize that the first obligation of a wine glass is not to leak, I am always open to sampling from what my host offers. I also recognize that fashion will unfold into new possibilities and that some of us will never give up our sentimental favourites. What to do with those test tube flutes? Pour in your favourite bubbly, slide in one of your reusable steel straws, and sip a nice patio fizz, knowing that you are doing what you want to do and staying terribly fashionable while doing it.

So here’s to you, fashionably.

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