WINE GLASSES

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Wine glasses shouldn’t be only beautiful to see but should have some features depending on which wine it will contain.
How it should be:

  • With a chalice shape, so you can keep the hand (and its smell) far from the nose
  • With longer stand for white wine so the hand won’t warm the wine
  • Thin, so the wine will go directly in the mouth without any other tactile sense
  • With no color at all, in order to see the color of the wine
  • Smooth, made in glass or crystal, in order to see the tracks left from wine while rotating.

Here some simple rules:

  • Young, fresh, acid wines need a glass which bring the wine toward the side of the tongue, where the acid flavor is sensed.
  • A old and structured red wine needs to be oxygenated, and you should rotate the glass in order to mix old wine with air. So it needs a wide glass where the surface of wine is larger and more air can go into the wine.
  • A sweet sparkling wine should be drunk in a wide glass because the smell it’s really strong and it’d bother you if you’d put the glass too close to the nose.
  • A dry sparkling wine needs a long and narrow glass, so it’s easy to see bubbles coming up from the bottom and the CO2 can be released in the air in more appropriate way. And this glass helps to bring perfumes toward the nose because the smell of these wine tends to disappear quickly.

So It’s correct to change the glass according to the wine to enjoy it better. But during wine contests or technical evaluation of wine, professional tasters use a single glass. This glass have to be always the same because in this way they evaluate every single wine under the same conditions.

So the ISO (International Standards Organizations), after long experiments, released the dimensions that must have the glass in technical organoleptic evaluations.

This glass should be made in glass with at least 9% of lead metal inside. It should contain from 210 to 225ml of liquid and in any tasting should be filled 50 ml of wine.

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ISO wine glass

Some example of wine glasses:

For sweet and strong dessert wine. For example:
Porto
Passito di Pantelleria
Moscato di Scanzo

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For wine with complex perfumes and long persistance of flavors. For example: 
Brunello di Montalcino
Cabernet Sauvignon
Barolo
Nobile di Montepulciano

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For rich and elegant red wines. For example: 
Barbaresco 
Amarone della Valpolicella
Valtellina Sfurzat
Barolo
Brunello di Montalcino

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For red wines with a huge body and really structured white wine. For example: 
Chianti Classico
Supertuscan 
Sangiovese
Barbera

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For traditional method sparkling wine. For example:
Champagne
Franciacorta 

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For round and soft red wines. For example: 
Nebbiolo
Rosso di Montepulciano
Rossi di Montalcino
Barbera

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For round and soft red wines with well equilibrate flavors. For example: 
Brunello di Montalcino
Barbaresco
Nobile di Montepulciano

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For rich and with huge body white wine. For example: 
Pecorino
Lugana
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

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For Sparkling wines with strong perfumes. For Example:
Prosecco
Franciacorta

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For well structured wine and with important perfumes. For example: 
Barbera d’Asti
Nero d’Avola
Aglianico del Vulture

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For white wines with strong perfumes
Vermentino
Cortese di Gavi
Collio Sauvignon


Here a link where it's possible to find thousands of glasses. And it’s one of the most famous glass maker in Italy:
bormioli rocco