A vino glass is not conscionable a vino glass. It is signifier and function, presumption and culture, past and modernity, each successful a azygous object. It’s a instrumentality we usage to devour thing highly sought after, and astatine the aforesaid time, the instrumentality itself is simply a taxable of large inquiry, adjacent obsession. Some radical are truly into wine, but others are each spot arsenic overmuch consumed by the solid it's served in.
There are dozens, possibly adjacent hundreds of vino solid manufacturers, ample and small, practice and upstart, producing glassware successful astir each country of the world. There’s a heavy past of glassware accumulation successful Central Europe dating backmost to the 19th century, and contiguous it’s centered connected makers successful Austria (home to Zalto and Riedel, to sanction conscionable two), Switzerland, and Germany. I tested products from good glassware companies from crossed Europe arsenic good arsenic from England, Japan, and the United States, covering a wide spectrum of terms points and styles, including our apical prime for each types of wine, the Glassvin Universal ($79).
Whether you’re a casual idiosyncratic oregon a superior obsessive, upgrading your vino solid crippled is simply a model into the finer things successful life, and an concern successful your ain pleasance and enjoyment for years to come. Don’t judge me? Blind-test immoderate of the stems successful this usher adjacent to a elemental Ikea Svalka oregon immoderate different mass-produced inexpensive option—you’ll beryllium amazed by the difference.
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What Kind of Glass Stem Should I Buy?
Glass stemware is disposable successful a wide scope of styles, sizes, and terms points, from hundred-year-old artisan glassware makers successful Central Europe to caller brands making their people connected the accepted glassware market. Price considerations of people travel into play, but arsenic with truthful galore of the products we usage and emotion successful this modern world, the astir costly enactment is not ever the best.
If you’re wholly caller to each of this, a large spot to commencement is with a alleged cosmopolitan glass—a stem that’s meant for usage with immoderate benignant of vino you desire, from reddish to achromatic to sparkling. Nearly each marque of glassware produces a cosmopolitan offering, but immoderate brands only marque a universal, offering a grade of specialization and care.
People who get truly into stemware sometimes make a benignant of marque loyalty, exploring the afloat scope of 1 azygous marque for each of their drinking needs. And indeed, it’s not uncommon for 1 steadfast to connection a half-dozen oregon much options of vino stem, specialized astir the highly circumstantial styles of vino meant to beryllium served therein. A immense vessel stem mightiness enactment beautifully for immoderate reddish wines, but not all; a narrow, smaller solid mightiness flatter definite achromatic wines, but throttle others. Ultimately you’re into the onshore of subjectivity with this stuff, and astatine the extremity of the time the close vino solid for you is the 1 that feels champion successful your hands.
At the commencement of the twelvemonth I solicited merchandise samples from much than 2 twelve solid manufacturers, moving the gamut of style, price, and federation of origin. I past spent respective months surviving with this glassware, incorporating it into each facet of my regular beingness and drinking copious amounts of beverages from each. In summation to wine, each azygous vino solid tested for this diagnostic was fixed a baseline trial of mineral water—a taxable I americium passionate about—because good mineral h2o from due stemware is an immensely pleasurable drinking experience, and due to the fact that the profound enjoyment 1 tin find from a bully vino solid shouldn’t beryllium constricted lone to those who devour alcohol.
Many of the featured brands connection circumstantial glasses meant for definite styles of wine—the Grassl Mineralité, for example, is intended for “crisp, fresh” wines, whereas the Grassl 1885 is purposed for wines with “great complexity and body.” In specified instances, I made a constituent of investigating glassware with its intended serving proposition first, earlier jumping astir with different beverage styles and putting each solid done its paces.
In full I tested astir 100 idiosyncratic pieces of stemware implicit the past respective months. Much swirling and information took place. It’s astir like, with so overmuch to see for this guide, I ran into the occupation of having to funnel a immense magnitude of information toward thing similar a manageable and reader-friendly conclusion. I deliberation it is possibly worthy mentioning that this level of hands-on testing—as opposed to, say, relying connected property releases, income sheets, and the almighty Google—appears to beryllium for the astir portion unsocial among vino glassware articles presently disposable online. This is wherefore you work WIRED.
Why Do I Need Multiple Wine Glasses?
You mightiness beryllium wondering—quite reasonably!—why anyone would need, attraction about, oregon privation to see each these antithetic vino solid options. I deliberation that’s an eminently just question, 1 that I’ve thought astir a large woody passim the investigating process for this story. For vino geeks, the close vino solid becomes a portion of the wider milieu of geekery successful which they inhabit, on with different accoutrements similar vino vessel openers, vino refrigerators, and truthful on. But for galore different kinds of consumers, vino glasses connection this benignant of surviving node of quality successful their lives—we clasp these works of creation successful our hands, and clink them unneurotic successful celebration, and they enactment with america passim the evening, coming backmost to america again and again for different interaction point.
I deliberation stemware argues loudly for itself arsenic an entity of pleasure. A due vino stem makes immoderate you’re drinking sensation better, and the tactile acquisition of sipping and swirling from a beauteous stem tin beryllium profoundly gratifying.