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BARTENDER'S
WINE EXPERT: JOSEPH DELISSIO |
PROPER
GLASSWARE
by Joseph DeLissio |
Proper glassware is essential for both the sales and the enjoyment of wine. Quite often the importance of serving wine in proper glassware is overlooked, but, it is the first silent signal your customers receive about how serious your establishment is about wine.
There are different glasses for different wines in the same way that there are different utensils for different foods. You wouldn’t use a butter knife to cut a steak, would you? Nor should you serve a white wine in a fluted Champagne
glass. Before we discuss the different types of wine glasses, let us first understand some basic information that applies to all glassware.
Cleanliness:
Few owners and bartenders realize this but, one of the top reasons that wines are sent back to the bar is because they smell bad.
And, while the wine will usually get the blame, most often that bad smell had nothing to do with the wine. If the glass smells bad, so will the
wine. The glass should be well cleaned, free of any soap spots or food stains. Soap often leaves a residue that cannot be seen, and when a wine comes in contact with this residue it will negatively affect the taste and smell of the
wine. I have been in too many bars where the glass may have started out clean, but, after spending a few hours on an unclean glass mat, bad odor was not far behind. The lesson here is important and should be remembered: Always smell the glasses before you set the room, because if the glass has an odor, so will the wine. The solution? Rinse and rinse again.
Thickness:
Thin glasses, in general, are preferable to thick, heavy ones.
Thin glasses allow your customer a truer and more natural evaluation of the wine, and they have less influence on the wine’s temperature.
Etchings:
Glasses that are heavily etched, painted, or tinted may be quite attractive as well as expensive, but they will affect the true appearance of a wine.
Shape:
There are many shapes and sizes of wine glasses and one must be careful not to confuse a good, proper glass with a fashion statement. For Champagne and sparkling wines, the best glass is the tall, tapered flute glass, which is designed to keep the bubbles active. The worst glasses for Champagne and sparkling wines are the small, flat, wide saucer-styled glasses that are often used in catering halls. This type of glass exposes too much of the wine to the air, causing a premature release of the gases needed to sustain the active bubbles that one associates with these wines.
The best all-purpose wine glass should be approximately ten to fourteen ounces. The bowl should be of medium size and should taper slightly inward at the
top. Tapered glasses are designed to help direct and focus the wine’s aromas toward the
nose. While red wines are usually served in slightly bigger glasses then white wines, this type of glass is acceptable for both.
Pour amounts:
To properly swirl a wine in the glass, it is important not to pour much more wine than half of that glasses capacity. If customers complain about the drink appearing short (and they often do) remind them that this is the proper pour level, and that a twelve ounce wine glass half filled still holds six ounces, or a quarter of a bottle of wine. Champagne can be poured slightly higher levels (two-thirds to three quarters).
With wine consumption still on the rise, an investment in proper glassware may help guarantee your establishment won’t be left behind, it will also keep your patrons “DRINKING WELL” along the way.
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