Types of Glasses
There are three main categories of wine glasses: Red wine glasses, White wine glasses, and Champagne flutes. Each glass is designed to enhance the flavor and aroma of the wine by controlling how the wine oxidizes as well as how it is sniffed and tasted.
Red wine glasses have larger, rounder bowls on them that allow the wine in react more readily with the air. As this happens, the wine will begin to change, bringing out an array of aromas and flavors. The wide mouth of the glass is designed so that you can get your nose right into the glass while taking a sip. It also allows more room to swirl the wine and infuse air before taking a sip. There is some variance in sizes and shapes of red wine glasses. Bolder wines often have a lot on the nose and are best experienced in a slightly taller glass allowing the wine to sit further down in the glass – not as much surface area needs to be exposed. More delicate red wines however, require a lot of surface area to bring out all of the nuances. Their wide, oversized bowls easily distinguish these glasses.
White wine glasses are generally designed with a narrower bowl and mouth in order to allow some oxidization but not too much, too quickly. This is done so that the crispness that tends to characterize white wines remains intact and the aromas and flavors that are there are not smoothed out altogether. As a general rule, the cleaner and crisper the wine you are presenting, the narrower the glass. However, since there is such a variance of white wines, you see many different shapes of glasses. For some white whites, such as a buttery Chardonnay, a wider bowl is desirable, similar to a red wine glass so that it can breathe more and the complexities of wine can be detected.
Finally, a champagne flute would be the extreme example of a narrow-mouthed glass. It is designed to keep oxidization to a minimum, keeping in the clean, crisp flavor as well as the carbonation. Champagne and other sparkling wines do not need to swirled around and our nose does definitely not need to be right in there with it. A champagne flute’s shape forces us to tip our head back further when taking a sip causing the wine to fall further back onto our palates while our nose is outside the glass.