And now for my next trick… The amazing changing wine!

So if you want to do something fun with wine and potentially impress your family and friends, then please read on! In my last blog, “It’s not marketing hype, the glass REALLY does make a difference!” I discovered the shape of the glass really does affect the bubbles, aroma and taste of the wine thanks to some experimenting together with Riedel UK, the top glass people. After the testing, I couldn’t wait to try out this new found phenomenon at home. Would it still work even with my own glasses?

So one Friday night, I invited a group of friends around for a spot of Prosecco and glass testing. I sorted out 6 different wine glass styles including Champagne flutes, white wine glasses, large red wine glasses, cut-crystal glasses and some pretty LSA wine glasses with black swirls. (I didn’t have any Riedel ones at this point I hasten to add). I hadn’t told friends exactly what we were doing. Would they be able to notice any difference? Would I be able to tell again without the professional guidance from Riedel?! I poured out my Ca’Salina Prosecco into each of the 6 different glasses. It was easy for everyone to see the difference. Some were bubbling away quite furiously, some not as much. The bubbles in the funnel shaped ‘sparkling wine’ LSA glass soon disappeared.

Next the aroma test. “Can you tell any difference in the aroma between the different glasses?” I asked. It was soon apparent that they could, even to my friends who are typical wine drinkers and not wine experts. “I can’t smell anything” to “This smells really good, of apples and pears” came the gist of the comments. My friends were now more intrigued but also getting a bit agitated as they are more used to drinking wine than sniffing and looking at it!

The Prosecco was sipped, finally. Oh and not spitted! It’s far too good to spit. (We didn’t do that at Riedel by the way. We were very professional!) So could anyone detect a difference? “It definitely tasted better in that glass” came the general response. Everyone was pretty amazed at the difference, as I was again. The best glass was a white wine glass, which curved in at the top. Much more fragrant, rounded and had a balanced taste. It wasn’t quite as good as when drunk from the Riedel Ouverture Champagne glass (from what I could remember), but it was certainly the best out of my glasses which included a Champagne flute and a sparkling wine glass. “I never knew that”, “I can’t believe I’ve been drinking wine all this time without knowing this” were a few more of my friend’s comments. After all the testing, we all needed another glass or 2 of Prosecco just to be sure.

So if you don’t know about this phenomenon, then why not have a go yourself. Impress your friends (and yourself). Your wine could taste even better than it does now. Oh and it’s not just sparkling wine, it works for all wines. But what if you discover your favourite glass is useless like I did? Well of course you can still use it, but you might just choose not to quite so often in favour of another glass which improves the wine’s characteristics. In my case, the very beautiful Riedel ones which are just perfect for Prosecco.

Oh and just be warned, the only problem in doing the testing…the washing up! Lots of glasses. Though it’s ok if you have a dishwasher. I really need to get one (and a bigger kitchen to put it in!)

Shared by Julia Phillips

Director & Founder
Just Perfect Wines