What’s The Best Glass To Serve Champagne In?

You – A glass of Champagne please.

Bartender/Waiter – Of course, what glass would you like?

That’s not likely going to be a question you will ever be faced with, the most awkward question is going to be more like:

Bartender/Waiter – Would you like a Brut or an Extra Brut?

But if you decide to host a fancy dinner party, or just want to get the most out of your glass of Champagne, in flavours and aromas, not the amount the glass can hold, then this article might help you.

There are 4 main glasses that are used to enjoy Champagne, including the Wine Glass, the Tulip, the Flute and of course the famous Coupe, thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby film.

These are the 4 main glasses that other Champagne or Sparkling Wine glasses are modelled off of, with slight variations allowing for slightly different tasting experiences, but let’s just focus on the 4 main glasses as the other slightly different glasses will fall under one of these.

 

You – What glass will give me the best tasting experience?

Bartender/Waiter – Allow me to explain them to you.

The Coupe is the kind of glass that you are always mindful of, not wanting to make any big movements and dreading someone knocking into you, this glass has been popularised in movies, but it isn’t really practical, not only counting the fact that the slight knock will lose you a sip or two, but the fact the aromas from the Champagne are not being pushed up towards your nose as much as the other glasses, your aromas have a wider field to play in, meaning you don’t always get the full experience.

For the flavour, you taste Champagne, but some of the unique flavours to the Champagne you are drinking can be lost.

The Good

• Looks cool, like you are Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby.

The Bad

• Very little control.
• High potential to lose some of your Champagne.
• The aroma is not as prominent and you might miss out on some of the more subtle aromas.
• Not the best tasting experience.
• Not easy to swirl.

A great glass for Champagne, but tipping to the other side of the scales, this glass can be a bit claustrophobic, it’s easy to hold and you are not likely to lose any Champagne, the aromas are all funnelled up into a much smaller exit, the flavour is also not given as much of a chance to open up and express itself, just giving you a taste of what your Champagne has to offer.

The Good

• Concentrated aroma.
• Easy to hold.
• Great for young Champagnes.
• Great for bubbles.

The Bad

• Not always the most comfortable to drink from.
• Might get overwhelmed by all the aromas, making it harder to establish individual aromas.
• Not a lot of room to swirl.
• Some of the flavours are not expressed fully.

The Tulip, if you search ‘What’s The Best Glass To Serve Champagne In?’ the Tulip comes up as number one, but is it so? There are two strong contenders for the number one slot, and the Tulip is definitely a strong contender, this glass is preferred when tasting more mature Champagnes, yet again easy to hold, you have a wider rim, but still concentrated, the extra space around the rim allows the aromas to express themselves in a more ‘mature’ way, allowing you to delve into the aromas to pick out certain notes with more ease.

The flavour is able to express itself fully, there is enough room to open up and express those certain notes that could be lost in other glasses.

The Good

• Great expression of aromas, allowing you to explore in more detail.
• Easy to hold.
• Perfect for a flavourful experience.
• Looks awesome.
• My personal favourite.
• Easy to swirl.
• Easy to drink from.

The Bad

• More delicate and easier to break if accidentally knocked over.

The glass with Wine in its name, the Wine Glass, not the Champagne Glass, this glass was made for Wine, but Champagne has found a comfortable home being swirled and drunk from it, the rim is more open than the Tulip, but not as much the Coupe, this allows the aromas to part in their individual ways, helping you to pick out the individual notes, along with the flavours, a great space to study all the secret notes that can shine through.

The Good

• Easy to hold.
• Great for space.
• An easy aroma to explore.
• Great flavour expression.
• Easy to swirl.

The Bad

• Not as impressive as other glasses.

 

There are lots of glasses out there to drink Champagne in, traditional or not, thanks to the ever growing Champagne and Sparkling Wine Cocktails, so whether you want to get the most out of your Champagne or just want to look cool drinking it, I hope this has helped.

 

And for the Glass of Bubbly Trophy Winners, they get to drink their Award Winning Champagne or Sparkling Wine straight from their Trophies, it doesn’t get much better than that.