The 9 Best Wine Glasses for Every Kind of Wine (2025) Leave a comment
A wine glass is not only a wine glass. It’s kind and performance, standing and tradition, historical past and modernity, all in a single object. It’s a software we use to devour one thing extremely wanted, and on the identical time, the software itself is a topic of nice inquiry, even obsession. Some persons are actually into wine, however others are each bit as a lot consumed by the glass it is served in.
There are dozens, even perhaps tons of of wine glass producers, giant and small, heritage and upstart, producing glassware in practically each nook of the world. There’s a deep historical past of glassware manufacturing in Central Europe courting again to the nineteenth century, and right now it’s centered on makers in Austria (house to Zalto and Riedel, to call simply two), Switzerland, and Germany. I examined merchandise from effective glassware corporations from throughout Europe in addition to from England, Japan, and the USA, protecting a broad spectrum of value factors and kinds, together with our high choose for all sorts of wine, the Glassvin Common ($79).
Whether or not you’re an informal person or a critical obsessive, upgrading your wine glass sport is a window into the finer issues in life, and an funding in your individual pleasure and pleasure for years to return. Don’t consider me? Blind-test any of the stems on this information subsequent to a easy Ikea Svalka or some other mass-produced low-cost possibility—you’ll be amazed by the distinction.
Make sure you take a look at our different kitchen guides, together with the Finest Mushroom Espresso, Finest Espresso Grinders, Finest Corkscrews, and Finest Carbon Metal Pans.
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What Type of Glass Stem Ought to I Purchase?
Glass stemware is accessible in a broad vary of kinds, sizes, and value factors, from hundred-year-old artisan glassware makers in Central Europe to new manufacturers making their mark on the normal glassware market. Worth issues in fact come into play, however as with so lots of the merchandise we use and love on this fashionable world, the most costly possibility will not be all the time the very best.
For those who’re completely new to all of this, an incredible place to begin is with a so-called common glass—a stem that’s meant to be used with any fashion of wine you need, from pink to white to glowing. Practically each model of glassware produces a common providing, however some manufacturers solely make a common, providing a level of specialization and care.
Individuals who get actually into stemware typically develop a kind of model loyalty, exploring the total vary of 1 single model for all of their ingesting wants. And certainly, it’s not unusual for one agency to supply a half-dozen or extra choices of wine stem, specialised across the extremely particular kinds of wine meant to be served therein. An enormous bowl stem would possibly work superbly for some pink wines, however not all; a slender, smaller glass would possibly flatter sure white wines, however throttle others. Finally you’re into the land of subjectivity with these things, and on the finish of the day the appropriate wine glass for you is the one which feels finest in your fingers.
Firstly of the yr I solicited product samples from greater than two dozen glass producers, operating the gamut of fashion, value, and nation of origin. I then spent a number of months residing with this glassware, incorporating it into each aspect of my every day life and ingesting copious quantities of drinks from every. Along with wine, each single wine glass examined for this characteristic was given a baseline check of mineral water—a subject I’m captivated with—as a result of effective mineral water from correct stemware is an immensely pleasurable ingesting expertise, and since the profound enjoyment one can discover from a pleasant wine glass shouldn’t be restricted solely to those that devour alcohol.
Lots of the featured manufacturers supply particular glasses meant for sure kinds of wine—the Grassl Mineralité, for instance, is meant for “crisp, recent” wines, whereas the Grassl 1885 is purposed for wines with “nice complexity and physique.” In such cases, I made a degree of testing glassware with its supposed serving suggestion first, earlier than leaping round with different beverage kinds and placing every glass by its paces.
In whole I examined round 100 particular person items of stemware over the previous a number of months. A lot swirling and consideration passed off. It’s virtually like, with so a lot to contemplate for this information, I bumped into the issue of getting to funnel an enormous quantity of knowledge towards one thing like a manageable and reader-friendly conclusion. I believe it’s maybe value mentioning that this stage of hands-on testing—versus, say, counting on press releases, gross sales sheets, and the almighty Google—seems to be for probably the most half distinctive amongst wine glassware articles presently out there on-line. That is why you learn WIRED.
Why Do I Want A number of Wine Glasses?
You may be questioning—fairly fairly!—why anybody would want, care about, or wish to contemplate all these totally different wine glass choices. I believe that’s an eminently honest query, one which I’ve considered an incredible deal all through the testing course of for this story. For wine geeks, the appropriate wine glass turns into part of the broader milieu of geekery during which they inhabit, together with different accoutrements like wine bottle openers, wine fridges, and so forth. However for a lot of different kinds of customers, wine glasses supply this kind of residing node of magnificence of their lives—we maintain these artworks in our fingers, and clink them collectively in celebration, they usually stick with us all through the night, coming again to us many times for an additional contact level.
I believe stemware argues loudly for itself as an object of delight. A correct wine stem makes no matter you’re ingesting style higher, and the tactile expertise of sipping and swirling from a beautiful stem may be deeply gratifying.
