A Glass For Every Class
The Sun Herald
Sunday December 6, 1992
ONE of the best things about entertaining with wine is that you don't need a lot of fancy and expensive stuff to do it well.
About all you need is a corkscrew and enough glasses to go around.
Some people think they need a different kind of glass for each style of wine - one for sparkling wine, one for white, one for red and one for dessert wines like port or muscat.
Certainly a whole range of glasses set out on the dinner table make a most impressive sight, and for those who can afford them, that's possibly the way to go.
But there's one glass that serves the purpose admirably for all wine styles.
It's called the international tasting glass and it's known among glassware retailers as the ISO or XL5. This is the glass the wine judges use.
It's attractive and shaped in such a way as to concentrate the aromas of the wine and let us get a good look at it.
There are varying qualities of these glasses.
You will buy them for as little as $2.50 or as much as $7.50 each.
The features to look for when buying glasses are the clarity of the glass used, the fineness of the lip and the base should be of at least the same diameter as the bowl to give the glass stability on the table.
The best glasses are moulded in one piece to eliminate the chances of the stem breaking away from the bowl or from the base.
Two-piece glasses are good, but the three-piece glasses should be avoided.
You also need to make sure when buying your glasses that the type you choose is easily replaced - we all know how often glasses are broken.
If you're really serious about enjoying your wine you will never, but never buy smoked or coloured glasses or cut glass or cut crystal. These make it difficult to see the colour of the wine, and its colour is part of its charm.
A brand I have been buying and found to be both elegant and sturdy is Durobor, made in Belgium. Durobor calls its international tasting glass the Vigneron and they're about $3 each. With the exception of the Durobor champagne flute (about $3) it's the only glass I use.
Those with dishwashers have no trouble restoring their glasses to top condition after use. If you don't have one simply wash your glasses in the hottest water you can manage (no detergent) and leave them upside-down to dry
Never store your wine glasses in cardboard cartons, they very quickly take on the smell of the cardboard and spoil your enjoyment of wine.
Of course if you want to make a big show you can go and buy decanters, ice buckets, wine pourers, champagne sealers and all manner of gadgets. But they're not really necessary to the art of successfully entertaining with wine.
If you must have different glasses for serving sparkling wines (champagne)whatever you do don't buy those shallow, hollow stemmed ones. They do no favours to the wine, they're extremely difficult to wash and they're said to be a trick played on the unsuspecting English by the French who are said to have invented them.
The French claimed these glasses were modelled on the breast of Marie Antoinette and the English fell for it.
Those unkind to the lady say the mould must have been taken on a very cold day.
© 1992 The Sun Herald
