Wine is nice! But does the shape of your glass really affect the taste?
Roll, smell, taste: we love a good glass of wine! What do you pay attention to when you take a glass of wine from the shelf? The grape, country of origin, the year perhaps? Makes sense. But does the shape of a wine glass also influence the taste? According to culinary journalist Otto Kleyn, this is indeed the case.
Narrow top
Wine glasses have undergone considerable development over the years. For example, a wine glass used to look very different than it does today. Back then they were a lot smaller and the top was wider. Now they are narrower at the top, which is very useful for rolling (spinning) the wine, and the glasses are a lot larger anyway. “It releases the aromas by wetting a larger surface area from which fragrance molecules can evaporate. Then you smell more,” Kleyn explains in his column in the Volkskrant.
And what about the different glasses for white and red wine? Nonsense, if you ask Otto. “The idea that white wine should be in a smaller glass than red makes no sense.” Ah!
Shape and taste
So it doesn’t matter much whether you drink the drink from a large or small glass. But how does the wine glass influence the taste? “How thin the glass is at the edge is important, as is the size of the opening,” says Kleyn. “The latter determines how the wine enters the mouth and presents itself on the tongue.”
However, Otto does not do justice to his own theory. The wine connoisseur himself only uses one glass to taste all the different wines.
Affordable wine glasses
Many people ‘just’ have a set of wine glasses from Ikea, Blokker or Action in their cupboard. Kleyn has a clear opinion about these affordable, sometimes even cheap, wine glasses: “They have the right shape, but the edges are thicker and they break quickly.” Although this is still better than ‘steins, plastic cups and fancy glassware’, he says. In short: the wine glass you have in the cupboard is most likely fine. Cheers!
Source: Things for Women | Image: NL Image
