May 12, 2009
Why Glass Is The Choice Of Most Wine Drinkers
The amount of wine made every year is simply staggering. It has been enjoyed all over the world for thousands of years and the cup of choice is almost always the glass. Has the question ever crossed your mind though, why glass? Why not from a mug, plastic cup or wooden goblet? Sadly, there is no definitive answer for this. Actually, wine is enjoyed from a number of different containers, other than glass, in many different places. For example in Japan, wine is drunk from a ceramic vase-shaped container and in Thailand, wooden cups are often used. However, the overriding choice of tableware drinking vessel, wherever you go, is glass. As it happens this is not down to glass being particularly excellent, rather the alternatives being really just not that suitable. Let take a look at them shall we.
Wood. Wine is indeed drunk from wooden vessels as highlighted previously, although it doesn’t come without some big downsides. Firstly, if you are drinking red wine there is a high chance the wood will stain. Even the less porous harder woods fall victim to this fate before long. further more, rotting can often take place in the wood if it has liquid on it for a while. So after each use, time would have to be spent drying it out and removing any moisture.
Metal. If you have ever drunk wine from a metal cup you will know it’s not the best experience ever. Metals have a large number of things called ions, and when most wines come into contact with it ‘displacement’ can happen. This essentially means that often a number of the metal’s ions displace into the wine and this causes an alteration in the flavour. This is why you often pick up metallic notes when drink from this type of cup. Also, because of its very heat-conductive qualities, almost any other material would keep the wine cooler when you’re holding it
Ceramic. Like glass, ceramic is non porous, does not release any of its qualities into the wine, and can be easily cleaned with a glass cloth. This is why lots of people do use ceramic, although there will never be as many people as use glass because, very simply, you cannot see what is in the vessel. A large part of the experience of enjoying a fine wine is watching it swirl around the glass, admiring its body. Since glass was first developed, we have had the very simple and instinctive desire for this.
Filed under Home Wine Storage by Wine Storage Expert
















































