From The Tasting Room: What's the deal with glasses?

FROM THE TASTING ROOM

By Mickey Bellman

So what’s with the different glasses?

Believe it or not but the same wine will taste significantly different when served from particular glasses. I know, I know—I scoffed at this idea, too. How can an inert piece of transparent glass cause a wine to taste different? After all, it is the same wine sensed by the same tongue and only the container is different.

Try this simple test at home or in the winery. Select any red wine and pour some into a large bowl glass and a similar amount into a Champaign flute or small cup. Taste the wine in the small glass first and then the large glass. Be honest and see what you think. Most wine tasters are amazed and become believers in the shape of the glass and the taste of the wine.

Half the sense of taste is smell. With a large bowl glass, it fills with the bouquet of the wine. As you drink the wine, you immerse your nose into the glass and inhale the bouquet. That enhances the flavor of the wine. In a small glass your nose cannot get anywhere close to the bowl and you miss the wonderful smell of good wine.

In the Willamette Valley Vineyards’ Tasting Room we use three different glass styles—a large bowl Pinot Noir glass, a tall but narrow Cabernet-Merlot glass, and a smaller Viognier/white wine glass. Although there are some 27 different style glasses to match each varietal, we have found these three glasses serve us (and the wine) well.

Willamette Valley Vineyards is the Oregon distributor of Riedel glassware. The family-owned company dates back some 140 years to Austria where the glasses are designed and crafted. We are the first winery in Oregon to use Riedel glassware exclusively in our tasting room and showcase WVV wines.

Stop by the Tasting Room for our reserve tasting, pick up a Riedel glass and try six samples of premium Willamette Valley wine for $6. You’ll be glad you did!