April 17th, 2010 by

Any sommelier worth his or her trade can tell you that the look of a wine glass is important to the perception of the wine itself. Wine glasses or Martini glasses can be gotten in a superb variety of styles, with certain styles reserved for specific sorts of wine. Wine glasses fall under the class of stemware, which are drink ware that stand on stems above a base.

So a wine glass is composed of three parts: the bowl, where the drink is contained, and the stem, which supports the bowl on the foot, or base. The proper way to drink from a wine glass is to hold it by its stem. It is frequently assumed that this is done, particularly in the case of chilled wines, so as not to affect the temperature of the drink by passing along one’s own body heat through the hand and fingers.

But that is a misconception, as wine fans hold drink ware therefore so as to discern color and clearness without their own hands and fingers getting in the line of sight. One apocryphal bit of lore involving taste that may basically be true concerns the actual development of wine glasses: those made of fused or cut glass are said to lightly change a wine’s true taste.

Blown glass is an OK material for casual drinking in Lolita wine glasses, but many experts in the field claim that the best quality wine should be served in lead crystal wine glasses. They certainly look very impressive, to be certain, what with a higher index of refraction that ends in aesthetically more pleasing lighting effects passing thru them. They’re also heavier and therefore feel really nice when grasped, for those who take wine-tasting so seriously as to reserve special wares for the activity must of necessity also find robust solid glasses an extra pleasure that increases all pleasure overall.