Grape Wine Journey

For anyone who has spent any time or effort getting to know the different grape varietals and their characteristics when turned into wine, the concept that different wines should be drunk in different glasses should come naturally.

Either through experience or study, we all know that white wine glasses should be smaller than red wine glasses, simply due to the intensity of the bouquet from reds, which requires, perhaps deserves, more room to breathe and manifest itself.

We all know this simple rule, but few of us take the time to explore the idea further and find out how different shapes and sizes of glasses impact the actual experience of drinking different wines. More importantly, few of us ask the question: What is the best shape and size for a glass that is best suited to maximise the qualities of a particular varietal?

No one has explored this idea more than Georg Riedel, who came up with the idea while drinking with his Italian buddies back in the 70s. He brought his idea to fruition by talking, and no doubt tasting, with winemakers around the world. The result is Riedel, a company that now produces different glasses for nearly every varietal – and in the case of classic Bordeauxs, two different glasses.

It’s easy to put Reidel’s messaging down to a clever marketing ploy to sell more glasses, but having attended my first Riedel “glass tasting,” I’m definitely a convert.

What’s more, it was one of those eureka moments, when something that has always hid in the back of your mind suddenly becomes crystal clear. It just makes perfect sense once it is laid out in front of you.

GLASS TASTING

We started the evening with four different Riedel glasses in front of us, and four different wines (two New Zealand, two Californian). There’s the typical white wine glass, about 3 inches in width tapering upwards to a slightly narrower mouth. There’s a round bowl around 5 inches in width and a mouth to match. Then there were two gargantuan red wine glasses, one with a wider girth that tapered sharply to a narrower opening, and one that rose gently to a wide mouth.

The four glasses, according to Riedel, are specifically designed for – in order of the description above: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay (specifically Montrachet), Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

We were told to conduct a series of experiments – one wine after another, first smelling and tasting the appropriate wine in its appropriate glass, then transferring the same wine to another glass to compare the bouquet and taste.

The results were startling clear and the difference in experience hits home like the sun emerging from the clouds after a long dreary Monday morning. In each case, the full spectrum of aromas that is so apparent in the appropriate glass, gets diluted, at times loss, once the same wine is transferred to a different type of glass. It’s not like all the fragrance is gone, it just lacks the layering, with the full complexity of the wine muted, flattened.

What’s more surprising is the fact that the taste is also impacted. As the Riedel’s representative noted, a big component of our sense of taste actually comes from the olfactory sensors – the example he gave was when you have a cold and your nose is blocked, food tends to loose its flavour – something that all of us understand intuitively but never thought to apply to wine tasting.

The same dullness that happens in the nose as the wines are put into an ‘inappropriate’ glass, also happens on the palate. It isn’t that the wines begin to taste bad, they just loose some of the depth and range that they had when they were in their assigned glasses.

What’s interesting is that most of you already knows this! While any experience drinker should be able to describe the characteristic of a particular grape varietal, we seldom connect that knowledge to how the wine would act, and react, inside its holder.

Even for me, who is more experienced – as opposed to studied – when it comes to drinking wines, the shapes and sizes of the glasses make perfect sense.

HUMMINGBIRDS

Sauvignon Blanc, being flowery, light, and fresh, needs a more confined environment to hold and focus its aroma up to the nose, hence the narrower white wine glass shape. It’s like a hummingbird – you need to keep it inside a small cage so you can admire it as it darts back and forth.

For the Chardonnay, particularly the Montrachat variety, which has more oak, honey, and nut, you need a wider enclosure to allow the full complexity of the aroma to expand and mingle. In a way, it’s like a great, big eagle – you need to give it a grand tree to stretch out its wings on so you can fully appreciate its elegance and grace.

The same thought process could be applied to the two red wine glasses. Burgundy, with its full aromatic intensity but the airiness of Pinot Noir, needs more room to lounge around and get to know each other, but a narrower mouth so the scent doesn’t escape all at once and you get to meet everyone at the party. Cabernet Sauvignon, with its bold and often austere character, needs to be enticed out its den by giving it lots of room, so it reveals its mettle, but a wider mouth so you don’t get maul as the strength of its fruit rushes up to your nose.

Put any of the varietals inside a different glass, and you can imagine what happens. An eagle in a hummingbird cage would give you a view of a few feathers. Put a hummingbird on a tree, and you’ll see just branches. Likewise, put the Cabernet in the Burgundy glass and you get just the fruit but not the elegance. Conversely, put the Burgundy in the Cabernet glass and you’ll hear only part of the conversation that the Pinot is trying to tell you.

And the variations go on – you just have to use your imagination. In this light, it’s difficult not to wonder how many wines we have all tasted and disliked simply because it was served in the wrong glass!

One interesting bit of information is: The only varietal (or region) that Riedel makes two types of glasses for is Bordeaux. In addition to the standard large, wide Cabernet glass, Riedel also makes a slightly smaller version for vintage Bordeauxs – the rationale being that aged Bordeauxs become more elegant and fragile, hence giving it a big glass would simply dilute the fullness of its personality.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now that you’re all ready to go out and buy a full set of Riedel glasses for your favourite wine varietal, I’d like to turn the whole idea on its head. While sipping on the overly flowery Sauvignon Blanc during the evening, a thought came into my head: Now that I’ve made the connection between how each type of wine behaves inside each type of glasses, is it now possible to make wines that I don’t like more palatable? Personally, I don’t much care for flowery Sauvignon Blancs, so should I start drinking this type of wine out of the Chardonnay glass, which would dilute the fragrance and make it more pleasurable, for me at least.

Of course, the easiest way around this, the Riedel rep pointed out, is don’t drink Sauvignon Blanc. Then again, not everyone gets to choose the wine all of the time, so I will definitely keep this trick in mind next time I get stuck with a wine that I’m less than fond of.

And it shouldn’t stop there. If you get a wine that doesn’t feel right, you can always try changing glasses to see if it gets better. If you get a Cabernet that’s lighter than usual, try it in a Burgundy glass, and so on and so forth.