Zwiesel Glas Pure

The bowls are arranged by grape. The 41 cl white wine glass keeps crisp wine cool because less surface is exposed to the air. The 46.5 cl beaujolais glass and the 55 cl cabernet glass sit in the middle, while the 68 cl bordeaux glass and the 70 cl burgundy glass give heavy wine room. Those large sizes can look daunting, but you never fill them: a third is enough, and it is precisely the empty space that does the work.

For sparkling wine there are flutes of 21.5 and 29.7 cl with an effervescence point in the base. Compare the sizes if you like under white wine glasses.

Hold a Pure glass by the stem and not by the bowl. Here that is more than etiquette: the thin wall passes on the warmth of your hand quickly, and white wine at ten degrees is noticeably warmer within a few minutes. Pour up to the widest point and swirl briefly before you smell. The 34.3 cl martini glass is roomy enough for a dry martini with an olive or a twist, and the flutes do their work with a champagne cocktail.

Tritan is lead-free crystal glass deliberately made for machine washing. Where lead crystal turns dull over time and takes on a greyish haze, Tritan keeps its clarity. That does not change the fact that a thin rim stays vulnerable: most breakage happens in the basket and in the cupboard, not at the table. Place the glasses apart from one another, do not let stems touch and dry them with a lint-free cloth while the glass is still lukewarm.

The rest of the brand is at Zwiesel Glas, where the series with a rounded bowl can be found too. If you search by shape instead of by series, look at the red wine glasses or, for the roomiest bowls, at the large wine glasses. The matching 75 cl decanter appears under decanters.