Drink This Now! Lesson 2: Glassware: Yes, It Does Make a Difference

This was a very fun assignment that highlighted how the shape of the glass dramatically affects your perception of the wine.  Also, what swirling does to the wine and palming the glass in your hands and warming the wine does to reds, while white wine glass is held by the stem. 

In order to complete the lesson, I made a trip to Petco to purchase a fishbowl.  I then started chilling my aromatic white wine La Cana Albarino in the refrigerator. I arranged my glasses from smallest to biggest with a shot glass, rocks glass, water glass, small flared wine glass, big flared wine glass and finally the fish bowl.

the glassware

The aromatic red wine I selected for this was a Cline Zinfandel Vintage 2014 from Lodi, California.

The Aromatic white wine I selected was La Cana Albarino from Spain. I put this bottle of wine in the fridge for 45 minutes to chill.

I started with the Albarino and poured one shot of white wine in each glass.  I then sniffed each glass for aroma and recorded my thoughts (see chart below). I began drinking each glass of Albarino in random order and swirled, sniffed and drank each glass, starting with shot glass and then going to flared smaller, biggest flared, fishbowl and recorded my impressions.  The differences I detected in aroma and taste were recorded. In the smaller glasses such as the shot and rocks as well as the tall wine, there was far less aroma and taste.  The Alberino in the thinner flared glasses had the most aromas and pronounced flavors. The Albarino in the shot glass, rocks glass, water glass had very little aroma or flavor.  I was able to pick up a slight floral aroma. I tasted minerals and the wine had a tart finish in these glasses.  Conversely, the small wine, big wine and even the fishbowl picked up stronger floral and lemon aromas and I was able to taste oak in addition to lemon with small wine and big wine. The surface area of the wine glass definitely played a large part in aroma, with smaller surface of small and thin glasses not providing much surface area needed for aroma and taste. The larger, flared glasses maximized aroma and taste. Surprising the aromas and taste were pretty decent in the fishbowl as I was able pick up a stronger floral smell and some lemon notes.

pouring the Albarino

Then I started the same process with my red wine selection of the Cline Zinfandel.  in random order and swirled, sniffed and drank each glass, starting with shot glass and then going to flared smaller, biggest flared, fishbowl and recorded my impressions.  The differences I detected were similar to the red in that the smaller glasses such as the shot and also the tall wine had less aroma and taste.  The shot, rocks fishbowl and water glass provided a faint peppery aroma and were acidic tasting. The Zinfandel in the thinner flared glasses had the most aromas and more pronounced flavors of vanilla and pepper, but this wine was still very acidic tasting.  The big wine glass gave me the most aroma and taste with aroma of spice, vanilla nd berry, and the taste was that of black cherry, pepper, floral and pepper.

Pouring the Zinfandel

I then cupped the bowl of the big flared wine glass in both hands to warm up the Zinfandel wine and sloshed it around for a few minutes to coast the inside of the glass with wine.  I then did the smell assessment again and smelled fruitier and it tasted it even more berries such as blackberry and blueberry. I then repeated this with the small fared wine glass, noted cherry smell and cherry taste along with blueberry.  

	Shot Glass	Rocks Glass	Water Glass	Small Wine Glass	Big Wine Glass	Fish Bowl
Red	Faint peppery aroma, tasted acidic, light peppery tast	Faint peppery and berry aroma, tasted acidic, light peppery taste	Faint peppery aroma, tasted acidic, vanilla and pepper taste	Spice, vanilla aroma, tasted vanilla, cherry, and spicy aftertaste	Spice, vanilla and berry aroma, tasted vanilla, floral, pepper and black cherry, warmed up tasted blackberry and blueberry	Spice aroma, picked up vanilla and pepper taste
White	Faint floral aroma, tasted mineral note, tart	Faint floral aroma, tasted mineral note, tart	Faint floral aroma, tasted mineral note	Strong floral, lemon aroma, tasted lemon & oak	Strong floral, lemon aroma, tasted lemon, apple &  oak	Faint floral aroma, tasted mineral and lemon notes

Drinking from the classiest of glassware