By Kate Bardessono

What’s in a glass? Well, hopefully a great wine!    But seriously . . . By using the proper glass for each type of wine, you can enormously enhance your wine tasting experience.    During the 1950s, Claus J. Riedel began producing crystal stemware engineered specifically for the enhancement of flavor in wine and spirits. His crystal glasses that are cut and shaped to enhance the look, smell, and taste of the wine or spirit they hold. He designed his wine glasses by trial and error, using visual observation, taste and smell as his guidelines. Having close connections to some of the best sommeliers (wine tasters) in the world to do his testing clearly made a difference! His work has stood the test of time, and most other wine glass manufacturers now follow his guidelines.    The idea behind how the shape of a glass enhances a wine’s flavor actually isn’t that complicated. If you understand that most of what we taste is actually what we perceive from what we smell, you can begin to understand how different wines smell better depending on the shape of the bowl and opening of a glass. For example, the design of the opening of the glass may assist in delivering specific aromas desired	“By using the proper glass for each type of wine, you can enormously enhance your wine tasting experience…”     (left to right): sauvignon blanc; riesling (sweet); chablis/chardonnay; montrachet; riesling (dry), pinot grigio
	(left to right): syrah/shiraz; bordeaux/cabernet; tempranillo/rioja;burgundy/pinot noir; zinfandel/chianti
	(left to right): champagne; vintage champagne; sauternes; rose/blush
from certain wines to your nose. Likewise, the cut of the bowl of a glass can help to deliver specific flavors that are desired from a certain wine, to specific areas of your mouth.    Let me begin with why you want a thinner rim to sip from. A thicker rim will prevent the fruit of a wine from flowing freely onto your palate, and tends to accentuate the acidity, alcohol, and unpleasant aromas that may be present in a wine. A thinner rim will let the aroma and taste flow more freely from the glass. Why are those crystal glasses so large? It is because the larger bowl helps to slow uprising of the layers of aromas that a wine releases while you swirl it in a glass. You are then able to get more of the full ‘bouquet’ of the wine when you inhale.    Do you want a wider opening or smaller opening for your Cabernet? According to Riedel, you want to be able to hit the center of your palate with the wine to create a harmonious blend of fruit, tannin and acidity. Therefore, you would look for the nearest glass that has a slightly wider mouth with a straight opening. That design keeps the layers more together, so as not to overwhelm your nose with the alcohol or the tannins first, and delivers the wine to your mid-palate for a truly balanced taste. If you use these guidelines for wines with similar balances of acidity to fruit and tannins, you will begin to get a feel for how to choose the wine glass that will enhance the wines you enjoy.    For example:    A more mellow white wine with lower acidity, such as chardonnay, is highlighted best when introduced to the center palate. So, a smaller glass similar to the shape of the Cabernet glass (or Bordeaux glass) would be what you are looking for. This is the ideal shape to tantalize that area of your palate. The smaller size of the glass will also help to maximize the fruit of the wine.    Wishing to enhance the sweetness or fresh fruit taste of a Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling? You would look for a smaller bowl with a slightly bell shaped mouth to help deliver the wine to the tip of your tongue for that extra sweet fresh fruit taste sensation!    How about our fabulous Santa Barbara Pinot Noirs? Larger bowls with wider, slightly bell shaped openings help to release the fruit first to the front of your tongue. That helps show off the layers of flavors, and lets the acids punctuate the wine without making you pucker!    And let us not forget Champagne! The tower shows off the bubbles, the smaller bowls accentuate the fruit, and the opening is fairly straight, to land the effervescent, luxurious flavors smack down the center palate!    Other factors that you may consider are the temperature of the wine and the amount of wine that you pour. Chilled whites are not straight out of the refrigerator, otherwise the cold hides the taste and aroma. Reds shouldn’t be overheated, and remember to hold the glass by the stem, not the bowl, so you don’t heat up the wine. A full glass of red is about 5 Ð 6 ounces, a full glass of white 3 - 4 ounces, with sweets and spirits being three ounces, or even just once ounce.    Nowadays, there are many companies that produce a variety of wine glasses in several different price ranges, including non-leaded crystal. Finding glasses that suit what you like, in the price range that you can afford has never been easier. So pour yourself a glass of your favorite flavor of the month, and enjoy, savor, sip, swish and drink in style!