With Wineglasses, Size and Shape Matter

These days, having a nice glass of wine can mean more than choosing a bottle that you and your guests will enjoy. It can mean choosing from among hundreds of wineglasses of different sizes, shapes and colors. Monster glasses that would make a goldfish feel at home. Elegant flutes of the thinnest crystal. Tulip-shaped glasses that, aficionados say, will forever change the way your feel about Pinot Noir.

Can the size, shape and color of the glass from which you sip really mean so much?

A glass for every varietal
Wine has been drunk out of special glassware for centuries, but it wasn't until the 1950s that "special" became truly specialized. That's when Claus J. Riedel, whose family had been working with glass in Bohemia and Austria since the 1700s, began looking at how the size and shape of the wine glass affects the bouquet and taste of the wine. Riedel (rhymes with "needle") argued that the shape of the glass not only affects how the aroma of the wine develops, but how the wine meets the tongue. In 1961, his family's company began marketing a line of glasses designed especially for different varietals.

Today, the Riedel company makes more than 100 different types of glasses, or, as the company calls them, "drinking instruments." The top-of-the-line Sommelier series, for example, includes some 20 different shapes of glasses for wine, along with another 20 for fortified wines, spirits and water. The company's everyday series, called Vinum, includes more than a dozen glasses for wines, including two for Chardonnay to be employed depending on that wine's style.

The glasses are nice, says Fischer, and they may be appropriate for those who "are really into connoisseurship." But a dozen different shapes of glasses for wine is enough to tax nearly everyone's budget and cabinet space, not to mention memory. Even Fischer admits he would have trouble keeping straight which shape of glass is meant for which variety of wine, and he's the co-author of a forthcoming book from the CIA titled "At Your Service: A Hands-On Guide to the Professional Dining Room."

Hints for an all-purpose option
For that reason, Fischer and Andy Ersfeld, assistant manager of the retail shop at Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Washington State, offer a few guidelines for choosing glasses that will happily accompany most wines.

• Choose clear glass, and avoid etching. When you taste wine, Fischer explains, "You want to be able to look through the glass and see a puddle of wine on a white background." Clear glass allows you to concentrate on the wine's color, which can tell you about its style and potential for aging among other clues to its qualities.

• Get a glass that holds at least 8 to 10 ounces and feels comfortable in your hand. The glass should be big enough to hold the wine as you swirl it to release its aroma. The glass should also feel balanced as you hold it by the stem. Some very large glasses may feel top heavy. Keep in mind, says Ersfeld, that when you serve wine you should fill the glass only about a third full, leaving plenty of room for swirling and sniffing.

• Make sure the bowl of your glass — the part that holds the wine — is bigger at the bottom and tapers toward the top, something like the bottom half of a teardrop. This directs the aroma of the wine toward your nose. Avoid glasses that are wider at the top than they are at the bottom, such as martini glasses. They won't hold the wine if you swirl it and the aromas will slip out the sides. If you like sparkling wines, consider buying a set of Champagne flutes. The long, narrow shape of these glasses conserves the bubbles and shows them off.

Once you have a basic glass, consider adding more to your collection. At home, Ersfeld keeps two types of glasses for red wines (a Bordeaux glass and a Burgundy glass), a slightly smaller glass for white wines, and Champagne flutes. Fischer has Bordeaux and Burgundy glasses and Champagne flutes, too. But ask him which glasses he uses most often and he says his everyday choice is a less expensive glass he buys at Ikea.

After all, you can drink wine from "anything that will hold liquid," Fischer says. "So keep it simple, and don't go nuts about it."