White wine glasses

The slim bowl is the standard for young, fresh wine. It keeps the surface of the wine small, so the wine stays cool and the acidity crisp, and it funnels the aroma towards your nose. That is exactly what sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot grigio need, and for that you count on 20 to 30 cl.

Fuller white wine asks for the opposite. A mature chardonnay has oak notes and creaminess that only open up with more air, and for that a wider bowl of 35 to 45 cl works better. That model looks like a small red wine glass and is used that way in hospitality too, with one series for both colours.

If you are tasting rather than drinking, there are small tasting glasses of 13 to 22 cl, often with a fill line so every pour is equal. Red wine calls for roomier sizes, which you will find with the red wine glasses. At home, count on two glasses per guest; in hospitality, on two to three times your number of covers.

Pour no more than a third full, and with white preferably a little less. A small pour repeated more often keeps the wine cooler than one full glass sitting on the table for half an hour. Serve fresh white wine between 8 and 10 degrees, fuller and oak-aged wine between 10 and 12, because too cold actually pushes the aroma away.

Always hold the glass by the stem. A hand around the bowl raises the temperature within minutes, and with white you taste it straight away. A roomy white wine bowl is also the standard glass for a spritz, by the way: for a hugo spritz you fill it with ice, prosecco and elderflower, where the bowl mainly serves as a vessel and the ice keeps the wine cold. Put the bottle back in the cooler between pours, and you will 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. Place them so the stems do not touch, choose a short glassware programme and take them out as soon as it finishes. If steam lingers, it settles 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 with a lint-free cloth, holding the bowl rather than the foot, because it is precisely twisting from the foot that breaks stems. A glass brush with a soft head reaches further into narrow bowls than a sponge, and does not damage the wall.

If you would rather see all shapes side by side first, the full overview is with the wine glasses. If it is bubbles rather than still wine, that calls for a narrower bowl, which you will find with the champagne glasses, including models for prosecco and cava. Looking for a brand rather than a shape? Every house has its own page in the menu alongside. And if you mostly pour on the terrace, the aperol spritz is the recipe for which your largest white wine bowl is exactly the right glass.