What should wine tasting glasses look like? Here's how to find the right glass for each type of wine tasting.

Wine tasting glasses: types and how to choose them

Wine tasting is a multisensory experience that involves sight, smell and taste and leads to the discovery of the many facets of wines. It is an experience that needs to follow specific rules. One of the most important ones concerns the type of wine tasting glass.

Just as winery masters use special tools and machinery to enhance the quality of grapes and turn them into fine wines, those who are about to taste such wines must do so with the right tools as well. But which wine glasses are best to use for a wine tasting experience?

Wine tasting glasses: materials

Wine tasting glasses can differ in both shape and capacity but they share the material from which they are made: a glass of excellent transparency. This material allows the color, clarity and body of the wine to be appreciated on sight, the first step in the tasting experience.

Glass is one of the oldest materials worked by man: the finds in display at the Museum of Bottle and Glass in Poggio alle Mura show the evolution of the production techniques for this material and humankind's progress in its processing.

In the production of wine tasting glasses, crystal is very often used. This is a special type of glass characterized by its transparency, which is ideal for the visual assessment of wine.

The shapes can be many and they may vary depending on the type of wine chosen for tasting.

Red wine tasting glasses

Tasting glasses for red wine should be chosen according to the body, complexity and aromas of the wine. The types that best enhance classic red wines of medium body are the Ballon glass while for aged red wines, burgogne or barbaresco wine glasses are preferred.

Ballon

The ballon glass is characterized by a rounded, pot-bellied shape, perfect for releasing the intensity of the bouquet of aromas that makes young, aromatic red wines stand out. In addition, the breadth of the surface and its consequent brightness allow its texture and coloration to be appreciated.

Burgogne

The Burgogne glass, on the other hand, whose name refers to the French region by the same name, home of Pinot Noir, has a more elongated shape and is used as a tasting glass for more structured red wines that have aged several years.

The elongated, belly shape increases the surface area of the wine, allowing it to breathe and thus promoting oxygenation. Wide tasting glasses such as the Burgogne glass allow for careful and accurate visual assessment: the width of the belly allows proper rotation of the wine to appreciate the arches or tears and better examine clarity while the slightly narrower opening highlights more of the complex aromas, bringing them immediately to the nose for the first olfactory enjoyment.

Barbaresco

Also worth mentioning among tasting glasses for structured red wines is the pot-bodied one with flared rim also known as "barbaresco" from the town of Barbaresco in Piedmont where the famous wine by the same name is produced. The flared rim reminiscent of the distinctive tulip shape allows the bouquet of scents to expand and evolve as the olfactory analysis proceeds.

White wine tasting glasses

The most commonly used tasting glasses for white wine, are the tulip and Renano. Let’s see below what are the characteristics of these types of wine glasses.

Tulip

The tulip or "Sauvignon glass" is the most traditional of white wine tasting glasses and one of the most popular on the market. Its shape resembles that of the flower from which it takes its name, with a slightly convex, elongated belly and a flared opening that widens slightly from the central body.

This shape facilitates the ascent of aromas to the nose, which is why it is especially suitable when tasting fruity and delicate, light and medium-structured wines.

Renano

For more complex white wines, on the other hand, the Renano glass is preferred, a glass that is slightly closed at the top so that the intense aromas of the structured whites are channeled to the nose, allowing their complexity to be appreciated at first glance.

What is the ISO glass?

"ISO" stands for "International Standards Organization", which is the international organization involved worldwide in setting various technical standards.

In 1970, ISO experts also codified wine tasting glass sizes for use at official events. It is characterized by a different shape from those indicated so far and is suitable for all types of wine.

The ISO glass has a medium-sized belly with a slightly narrower opening to facilitate the concentration of aromas and their gradual release during olfactory analysis. It is filled to 50-100 ml, depending on the type of wine.