Royal Leerdam L'Esprit

The size of the bowl decides how much air the wine gets. The 25 cl is meant for a small glass, for instance at a tasting or for a sweet wine. The 32 cl is the usual size for white wine: enough room to swirl, but the wine does not warm up too quickly. For red you take the 41 or the 53 cl, in which the wine can open up. If you work with fixed serving measures, choose a model with a line: there are bowls marked at 12, 12.5 and 15 cl. For bubbles there is the 21 cl flute. Feel free to compare with the red wine glasses and the white wine glasses.

Never pour higher than the widest point of the bowl. Above that is the space where the aromas gather, and without that space you hardly smell the wine at all. In the 53 cl that often means no more than a third full. Always hold the glass by the stem, so your hand does not warm the wine. Serve white at around ten degrees and red slightly below room temperature, and the wine shows at its best. A glass with dinner turns festive by itself with a Kir Royal beforehand or a jug of sangria on the terrace.

Royal Leerdam makes these glasses by machine in soda-lime glass, with the rim additionally hardened. That makes the bowl less sensitive to the glancing knocks that simply happen in a wash-up area, and it is the reason the series is so widely used in hospitality. Everything can go in the dishwasher. Put the glasses in the rack separately and dry the stem afterwards, then no marks are left behind.

If you want to see what else the brand makes, have a look at Royal Leerdam, where Bouquet and Carre can be found as well. If you are looking wider than one series, all the bowls are with the wine glasses. For an opened bottle that has to last another day, the wine stoppers are ready and waiting, and port is poured from the port glasses. If you would rather try one size first, start with the 32 cl bowl.