How to Buy the Right Wine Glasses

TALL OR SHORT, wide bowl or narrow bowl—buying the right wine glasses to fit your cellar can be difficult. Lisa Euwer, a sommelier and manager at Foxcroft Wine Co., picks four glasses that will give you the proper pour for nearly any bottle. 

Heavy Reds (pictured above left)
When sipping full-bodied reds, you can get an aroma without much effort. These glasses have a wide bowl for swirling the wine, which helps release those aromas, but don’t need to taper in at the top to trap them inside.
Fill With: Bordeaux, syrah, cabernet, tempranillo

​Lighter Reds (pictured above right)
With red wines such as pinot noir, an appropriate glass can help bring out the wine’s subtle flavors. These glasses, with a tulip-shaped bowl, keep those more delicate notes inside the glass, while still allowing the wine to breathe. 
Fill With: Burgundy, pinot noir

​Whites (pictured below left)
Although there are many glasses to choose from for white wines, to save space, you can buy a utility white wine glass, such as the one pictured here. This glass works best with non-oaked wines, favoring fruity and floral notes—called the “bouquet” to wine enthusiasts. If you drink heavily oaked whites, Euwer suggests buying a separate set of chardonnay glasses, which have a wider bowl to help bring out subtler aromas and open up the wine.
Fill With: Riesling, pinot grigio

​Champagne (pictured below right)
Euwer says some sommeliers are pushing toward using a more standard white glass to get a better sense of the flavors in high-end Champagne. The original purpose of this glass, though, is to keep the your bubblies from going flat. We’d still recommend keeping classic Champagne glasses in your curio—for both their beauty and ease 
of toasting.
Fill With: Sparkling wine

Glasses provided by Riedel.