Perfect Gift: Gorgeous Wine Glasses

Like shoes to many women, I find it hard to say no to fine wine glasses and fine linens–especially if they’re on sale.

What makes linens and wine glasses better than shoes is that they almost always fit. You have a very good chance that you’ll have a bed in your house for those sheets or you’ll know someone who does.

And wine glasses! I’ve found they make an excellent hostess gift and you can never have too many at home…because, unfortunately, they break. And since I’m often involved in events where wine is involved, I want to make sure the wine is served in decent glasses (and not plastic cups!) both for the aesthetic experience and to be greener. Even inexpensive wine will taste significantly better in a glass of any kind while fine wine really deserves to be served in glass.

While it’s obvious to my eye and my touch the difference between the look and the quality of linens, wine glasses aren’t. And really, I wondered, beyond being a reasonable size, does the shape of a wine glass make that much of a difference?

Yes, Virginia, just like there’s a Santa Claus, there IS a huge difference in how a wine tastes in different shaped glasses.

In  the coming weeks, I plan to explore the world of wine glasses to educate myself and to in turn share what I learn with you, dear reader so that you too will know which wine glasses to get!

But in the meantime, some quick advice about a few wine glasses you might be considering picking up for yourself or as a gift with more details to follow soon along with some tasting notes about the wines I used to test the glasses.

So far, I’ve been most impressed by the price of the glasses I’ve bought on sale at Macy’s and by the fact that they often have handles for carrying them which comes in handy if you’re bringing them to a party or an event. The Martha Stewart lines I’ve tried are fine but they do more for the table than for the wine.

You might like your “Rabbit” wine opener and want to give the “Rabbit” “red” wine glasses a try. Mine  started out at $15 for a pair, were marked down for $10 and I picked them up for $6 a box and bought two boxes. According to “Rabbit” they’re “Grand Cru” size, shape and balance and “are sure to enhance your appreciation of your favorite red wines.” (Not! More on this to come!)

If the person you’re shopping for is just getting into wine, you might pick up “The One” by Andrea Robinson. I liked them fine for most of the wines I tried with them but when I did a direct comparison, I much preferred a Riedel (much much more on this tasting soon).

Last winter I won a contest over on Jo Diaz’s blog and she sent me a pair of Reidel Petite Syrah glasses. I was literally blown away by my first “kiss” –I was amazed by how wonderful the syrah was that I tried first with those glasses. That was my first inkling that the glass made that significant of a difference.

I recently compared the above glasses with two from Eisch that I was sent to review. These are absolutely gorgeous in shape, they feel great in the hand, and the lip is thin, sweet, and delicate. I love love love both of these glasses with red and white (yep!) but overall I definitely preferred the Eisch Glaskultur over the Sensis Plus glass.   Why? Stay tuned for more tasting notes as well as details about the Eisch glasses!