White wine glasses

The slender bowl is the standard for young, fresh wine. It keeps the wine’s surface area small, helping the wine stay cool and the acidity remain crisp, while directing the aromas toward your nose. That is exactly what sauvignon blanc, riesling, and pinot grigio need, so you can rely on 20 to 30 cl.

Fuller white wine calls for the opposite. An aged chardonnay has oak notes and creaminess that only open up with more air, and a wider bowl of 35 to 45 cl works better for that. This model resembles a small red wine glass and is also used that way in the hospitality industry, with one series for both colors.

If you taste instead of drink, there are small tasting glasses of 13 to 22 cl, often with a measuring line so every pour is the same. Red wine calls for larger sizes, which you can find among the red wine glasses. At home, allow for two glasses per guest, and in the hospitality industry, allow for two to three times the number of place settings.

Don't pour more than one-third full, and a little less for white wine. A small pour repeated more often keeps the wine cooler than one full glass left on the table for half an hour. Serve crisp white wine at between 8 and 10 degrees, and fuller-bodied, oak-aged wine at between 10 and 12, because too much cold actually suppresses the aroma.

Always hold the glass by the stem. Wrapping your hand around the bowl raises the temperature within minutes, and with white wine you notice it immediately. A large white-wine bowl is also the standard glass for a spritz: for a hugo spritz fill it with ice, prosecco, and elderflower, with the bowl mainly serving as a container and the ice keeping the wine cold. Always return the bottle to the cooler between pours, so you never have to rescue the wine halfway through.

White wine glasses are often the thinnest in the cupboard, and you notice that in the dishwasher. Position them so the stems do not touch each other, choose a short glassware cycle, and take them out immediately afterward. If steam lingers, it condenses as limescale and the glass loses its shine.

A dull haze is almost always limescale and disappears with a splash of vinegar in the rinse water. Dry afterward with a lint-free cloth, holding the bowl rather than the foot, because twisting from the foot is precisely what breaks stems. A glass brush with a soft head reaches farther into narrow bowls than a sponge and does not damage the glass wall.

Do you want to see all the shapes side by side first? The complete overview is under the wine glasses. If you're looking for sparkling wine instead of still wine, a narrower bowl is more suitable, and you'll find it under champagne glasses, including models for prosecco and cava. If you're looking for a brand rather than a shape, each house has its own page in the menu here. And if you mainly serve drinks on the patio, the Aperol Spritz is the recipe for which your largest white-wine glass is exactly the right glass.