Wine culture is an interesting Western phenomenon, full of coded language, dress and the classically snobby attitudes. There’s even the notion that certain glasses affect the taste of your beverage.
For clumsier wine drinkers, this could save a lot of money and heartbreak. Snobs will try to tell you that using a particular glass for a particular beverage is imperative to the ultimate drinking experience, but don’t be fooled – what matters most is the beverage, and not what you’re drinking it in.
If you’ve got a pretty glass collection already, don’t worry – there’s nothing wrong with enjoying your beverage visually, and allowing the wine to “breathe” in its glass is a lot more effective than through the bottle. But don’t think you need to buy a new set of glassware every time you try a wine just to get your money’s worth.
A study in the Journal of Food Quality concluded that “the panelists could not perceive differences between wine served in different glasses even if it was exposed to air for 30 (minutes) at room temperature. (Changes in compounds that affect the taste of the wine) were not profound enough to affect the sensory qualities of Merlot wine as judged by occasional drinkers.”
Unless you or your friends have golden tongues, there’s no need to worry about matching glasses to enjoy a nice glass of wine; more relevant would be paying attention to the serving temperature and beverage storage to ensure the quality of the taste.
