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How the shape of a wine glass affects taste

How the shape of a wine glass affects taste

Wine might not be the first thing you think of when the term "the right tool for the job" comes to mind, but it turns out the phrase couldn't be more fitting.

Wine experts claim that the taste of wine can be drastically improved -- or diminished -- simply by being served in the wrong glass.

"The wine is much more enjoyable if consumed from a glass that has been designed to respect its quality, and can bring out the best of its expression and its unique character," wine educator, Shalom Aronzon from Golan Heights Winery, tells Digital Journal.

For serious winos, this means clearing out some major cupboard space. It's not enough to have a glass set for white, red and bubbly -- to "respect" the quality of the wine, you're going to need separate stemware for each variety of red, white and bubbly you'll be drinking.

A full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, needs a different treatment than a light-bodied Pinot Noir -- likewise for a Riesling verses a Chardonnay.

Why is this?

It all comes down to two things -- the area of our mouths that the wine hits first, and the amount of air exposure the wine gets before we drink it.

Because different areas of our mouths are sensitive to varying degrees of sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami tastes, the wine needs to hit the right part of your mouth first to taste good. That's where a glass shaped specifically to target the area of the mouth that corresponds with the wine's flavour profile comes in handy.

Secondly, the shape of the glass dictates the wine's exposure to air -- you may have noticed how red wine glasses are much wider than glasses designed for white wines. That's because red wines are muskier and more aromatic, and therefore the smell of the wine -- enhanced by the swirling of the large, bowl-like glass -- plays as much a role in your enjoyment of the wine as the actual taste itself. One the contrary, white wine glasses are designed to be more narrow, which keeps the wine cooler for longer -- key for proper flavour in whites.

a professor and chair of wine studies at The Culinary Institute of America, tested out these theories.

He conducted a personal experiment where he invited guests for a blind taste test of excellent quality wines consumed in different glasses.

The results? Fabulous wines tasted like "crap" in the wrong glasses.

"The difference can be so striking, in fact, that... I’ve seen people refuse to believe that they were tasting the same wine in different glasses," Kolpan writes for Salon.

To help you select the right glass for the wine, Trudeau and Riedel offer guides online to help you,as well as this handy infographic from Wine Folly.