How to Use Proper Wine Glasses

One of the worst things you can do to the expensive wine you just bought is serve it in the wrong wine glass. Not only is it a faux pas, but the wrong wine glass can actually change the flavor and aromas of the wine. Luckily, it's easy to choose the right wine glass.

Instructions

1. Serve sparkling wines such as champagne in tall, tapered flutes. These tall glasses help the bubbles stay active. If you pour sparkling wine into regular wine glasses, your wine will soon lose all the bubbles and go flat.

2. Pour red wine into 14-to-16-ounce glasses that have larger bowls than white wine bowls. Red wine glasses should taper inward to help the aromas hit the nose. The bigger the flavor of the red wine, the bigger the bowl should be, to release more flavors. Cabernets and Shirazes have more flavors and should be in bigger bowls.

3. Place white wine in glasses with bowls medium-sized and tapered inward. This helps the aromas of the white wine actually hit the nose. The tapered bowl also helps the wine stay in the glass when you swirl it. Delicate whites such as rieslings and pinot gris should go into larger white wine glasses.

4. Put port, sherry and desert wines into small wine glasses without tapering.

5. Choose wine glasses with thin rather than thick glass. Thick glass can change the temperature of the wine. Avoid wine glasses with etching and tints as this affects the appearance of the wine in the glass.

Tips & Warnings

• Rinse wine glasses before pouring wine to get rid of any soap that can change the taste of the wine.