Stemware 101
Important Stemware Topics
- About Champagne Glasses
- About Our Stemware
- Controlling the Flow
- Examples with Burgundy and Bordeaux...
- A Very Important Example with Champagne...
- Bouquet and the Role of the Wine Glass...
- Lead-free vs Leaded Crystal... Can Someone Please Explain?
- Does the Rim of the Wine Glass Really Make a Difference?
- Hand Blown versus Machine Made Glasses...
- Taste Buds are on Alert...
- Glass breaks. That's why its glass...
- Stolzle versus Riedel and Spiegelau...
- Ask the Sommelier
Sparkling University
Does the Rim of the Wine Glass Really Make a Difference?
When you talk to most wine enthusiasts, much importance is placed on the rim and most will say that it indeed makes a difference. Ask most of them why and they will almost always explain it as perception.
We agree that drinking garbage wine from a thin or sheer rimmed wine glass won't help the wine but when drinking a quality wine from a sheer rimmed glass, perception and the feeling of the rim on your lips is only part of it. Not only does a sheer rimmed glass allow you to taste more of the wine than that of the glass itself but it also helps direct the flow of the wine in more of a precise manor to the appropriate area of the tongue. A sheer-rimmed or thin-lipped wine glass will also help to allow more oxygen into your mouth which will help to "volatilize" the wine (the same principle as "slurping" when tasting a wine) and send more of a flavor experience to the nasal cavity which has a much higher taste perception than the taste buds on our tongues. Thick rimmed glasses simply do not perform these functions.