Intro to the Glassware that Loves Wine!

So lets talk about glassware, more specifically the kind that we put our wonderful wine into!  Well the first thing we are going to talk about is what you can drink wine from.  The correct answer to this question is, pretty much anything.  Now there are somethings that are kind of frowned upon in society... like pitchers, ladles, straight from the bottle or from a bucket.   Now don't get me wrong how you enjoy your wine is none of my business,  my business is how ever to talk about the other vessels that are made for wine!

Excuse my slightly dirty glasses.

There are 3 main types of wine glasses, Red, White and Sparkling/Champagne. Everything else is a modification of those 3.  Above are examples of each of those 3. You will see wine glasses mainly made out of two materials, glass and lead crystal.  Yes there are plastic wine glasses but they don't warrant much discussion.

The next thing you should know are the different parts of a wine glass. Above you will see a diagram showing the 3 parts.  The top most part is the bowl and it holds the wine, obvious yes, but it had characteristics we will talk about later in the types of wine glasses section.  The next part down on the glass is the stem, again the obvious, its where you hold the glass and separates the bowl from the foot.  Speaking of feet the bottom of the glass is the foot it does what your feet do and keep you planted on the surface of your choice. So now that you are familiar with your wine glasses lets talk about some basic usage of your wine glasses.

Now that you know your wine glass anatomy lets talk about how to use your glasses.  First off when filling them only fill them to the widest part of the bowl this will allow you to get the best view of your wine as well as tilt it to get your nose in the bowl to smell it.  The next thing you should do is hold your wine glass by the stem... IT'S WHY IT'S THERE.  Holding the wineglass by the bowl or cupping the bottom of the bowl may look cool but it warms the wine up and leaves finger prints all over that will obscure your view of your wine.

Sorry about the tilt but its the only way I could get it framed on my Phone.

Finally the foot. Other than being the part of the wineglass that holds up the rest it is very useful when swirling your wine.  Placing the stem between your middle and ring finger and placing your hand on the table over the foot will allow you to swirl the wine in a very controlled way (see above video) allowing you to bring out all your favorite aromas.  So starting off with these fine pointers will get you on your way to enjoying your wine that much more.

My next post will be some suggestions on stemware, where to buy it and so forth.

~Court + Wine