Do you really need a different glass or decanter for red wine? Sniff, Sip and Slurp with the Best of them

The conundrum here, of course, is that most people have wine glasses and many have decanters.  Many use one shape – different sizes, possibly - for both red and white, but if you’re drinking a red and you want to get the best of it you really need a bowl shaped glass and a decanter designed to help wine open out.

So this is my choice of red wine glasses and decanters.  Incidentally you can, if you want to, buy varietal specific red wine glasses such as shiraz, burgundy, merlot but bearing in mind most people use one or two glasses for everything these would be a good choice – a wine buff will tell you that these are typically pinot or burgundy glasses but they are great for most red wines and most people don’t own them.



Coloured glass doesn’t work if you’re a wine buff or serious wine lover because they want to be able to see the colour of the wine they’re drinking – funny that - and I personally don’t particularly like having my red wine in a tumbler.  Give me a modern red wine glass with a bowl shape so that I can sniff, sip and taste the wines as they’re meant to be.  The eight above are perfect for just that.



Many don’t have these quite specialised glasses which is why they make such great gifts, as do modern decanters.  The problem is how many glasses do you give if you want them as a gift - remember you can always add to them over the years.....