The market has many different sorts of wine glasses with brands from different parts of the world such as Riedel, Schott Zwiesel, Mikasa, Chef & Sommelier and Plumm. Each company has different series of glasses and each series has different types of glasses for different wines. There are glasses for everything - for different grapes and different styles. Purchasers of such glassware believe that their experience will be enhanced if they use the right glass for the wine - like fitting a shoe with the right size to their foot. But does the right glass enhance the wine?
Each wine smells different. Some are more aromatic, some can be fruity, or woody, or grassy. I believe that the right glassware makes a difference in expressing the wine aromas. Some glass shapes can concentrate the aromas better than other glasses. It may not be a better glass because it all depends on whether what you are concentrating is good or bad. Then again, I have had many ocassions where a few of us are using the same glass, but then our wines smelt different. Some more expressive than others.
Then, there are the five tastes of salty, sweet, sour, bitterness, and savoury. Each wine has different degrees of tastes. Glassmakers shape the lips of each glass in a certain fashion so that they can control the way the wine lands on our tongue to create a favourable impression. For example, if the wine is sweet, the glass should direct the wine away from the tongue's tip, where the sweet receptors are located. This is to prevent the wine from tasting too cloying. All this is based on the assumption that the tongue map exists and everyone has the same map. The reality is that it does not. There are no special spots on the tongue that contains solely sweet receptors or bitter receptors. It doesn't matter where the wine lands.
Would I still buy special wine glasses for tasting wines? It all depends on how much it costs?. Usually, such glasses don't come cheap. They cost about $25 per glass. We are talking about crystal and this is considered cheap! However, the glasses do thrill me aesthetically. They are beautiful to look at and I love drinking in style. Since wine is not just about aromas and flavour, but also how it looks visually, drinking from a beautiful well-crafted crystal can add to my pleasure and perhaps even make me approve of a bad wine.
References: http://www.livescience.com/7113-tongue-map-tasteless-myth-debunked.html
Nice post Shalom.
ReplyDeletePeople have been peddling special drinking cups for centuries. The ancient Greek Kylix drinking cup was supposed to enhance flavours and allow you to drink while lying down, possibly drunk. An important feature I believe we have unfortunately lost in modern designs.
Behold the Ridelopolis (actually Kylix - drinking cup)
http://www.kam.uiuc.edu/collection/images/ancient/Kylix.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylix_(drinking_cup)#cite_note-Utah-0
Thanks for sharing, Winefreak. When I look at today's modern decanters, we are seeing some interesting shapes but it is still quite conservative in many ways. Aesthetically, glass/decanter designs have yet to be challenged to be more creative.
Delete