No festive table or romantic dinner is complete without beautiful wine glasses. On the shelves of the store you can find a huge variety of this beautiful tableware: for a special celebration or for designing a dining room, or maybe just for a warm family evening. Good wine or sparkling champagne is always preferable to drink from properly selected dishes. How to choose the right wine glass for wine? Let's take a closer look at this issue.
What is a wine glass?
A wine glass is a type of glass with a thicker leg of a narrow elongated shape, created specifically for sparkling wines. Like everything exquisite, he appeared in France. The cost of these glasses varies from the cheapest to exclusively expensive. It all depends on the material from which they are made.
How to choose a wine glass?
It is right to drink sweet champagne from glasses with a wide base, resembling a dessert vase on a thin leg. Such wine glasses made of Bohemian glass reveal the taste, aroma and sweetness of a sparkling drink.
For highly carbonated sparkling wine, it is recommended to use narrow glasses. In their long base champagne bubbles are retained for a long time, preserving the essence of this drink.
Crystal wine glasses are suitable for festive feasts. The shape resembling a tulip is universal for all types of wines and is convenient for periodically updating the drink before the next toast.
For white champagne, the best choice is a glass with a wide base. For red, it is a wineglass with a narrowed shape, as it expires faster.
How to decorate glasses?
From time immemorial, wine glasses were considered a luxury for courtiers. They were painted with gold, engraved with monograms. Exclusive sets of wine glasses are made of high-strength crystal with a design to the taste of the customer. Such painted dishes served in the interior of the dining room or kitchen as an original decor. Now they give preference to wine glasses without patterns and decorations. Laconic transparent glasses indicate the presence of taste and sophistication of their owner.
Also wine glasses are an integral part of wedding ceremonies. Handmade glasses for the bride and groom order in the same style.
How to determine the quality?
Real crystal wine glasses when touched emit a pleasant sonorous knock. The main feature of elite products is the presence of diamond faces that emit radiance. Also, to understand the quality of the glass, carefully examine it. If there are no small chips, scuffs, bubbles inside, small cracks in the base or on the leg, then this is a glass of fine crystal made by skilled glassblowers. Elite manufacturers of champagne glasses apply laser roughness to the inner part of the surface, this allows the bubbles to linger in the drink.
Glass or crystal?
Materials differ in their content of such an element as lead. If it contains no more than 4% - a glass glass, more than 10% - it is a glass of crystal. Do not be afraid, lead in this form is not dangerous. The higher its content, the cleaner the crystal will turn out and, accordingly, the product will be more expensive. This wine glass looks exquisite. Glass, alas, does not possess such qualities.
How to use?
In order to enjoy a delicious drink from a properly selected wine glass in full measure, it is necessary to follow some canons of etiquette and serving sparkling wine.
Before serving, champagne is cooled to 7 ° C and served in a bucket of ice. Fill the glass at an angle to 2/3 of its parts. The wineglass poured to the edges looks unaesthetic, so this should not be done. In order not to form excess foam, the drink is poured in a thin stream. The glass should be dry, moisture harms the bubbles.
The wine glass is held just by the leg so that the glass does not transfer heat so quickly, otherwise the taste of the wine will change. In order to feel the bouquet of wine, you need to rotate the glass a couple of times. Savor the drink in small sips to assess its taste and smell. Fruits and cheeses will serve as an excellent complement to champagne.
How to care?
Handle crystal wine glasses carefully. Use a few home care tips to keep your glasses looking like new:
- To clean the dishes in a liter of water, dissolve a spoonful of vinegar and half a spoonful of salt. Rinse the glasses and wipe dry.
- If the wine glasses have been stored on the shelf for a long time, as a result of darkening, the dishwashing detergent will help. After soaking in it, rinse everything with vinegar, and the glasses will shine again as if purchased.
- Old yellowed products will save potato broth. After it, just wash with a dishwashing detergent and rinse with water. You can also hold the glasses a little blue in order to restore their purity and brilliance.
- Crystal wine glasses must be thoroughly wiped with a coarse cloth so that ugly stains do not form after drying.
Such a refined drink like champagne can be appreciated only in a correctly selected, transparently clean, chilled wine glass.