According to some professionals, even if you expertly uncork a wine bottle and perfectly pour a glass, if you’re using the wrong glassware, you’re limiting a drink’s potential. Over the years, glassware has evolved to enhance each individual type of drink and improve the overall drinking experience.

In addition to expert opinion, scientific studies have found a correlation between glass shape and a drink’s presentation, flavor, aroma, body, temperature, and even the way people drink it.

There are hundreds of different glass types so you may be thinking, “How can I possibly stock every option and memorize every single pairing?”

Don’t worry, we’re here to help! Check out the list below to see what glassware experts suggest to use for each beverage.

The Basic Wine Glass

You may know that wine goes in a wine glass. But, do you know why?

A wine glass is made of four basic parts: therim, bowl, stem, and foot.

The size of the rim and the thinness of the rim’s material can affect the wine’s taste and temperature. The stem allows people to hold their wine glass without transferring heat from their hands, helping to maintain a wine’s intended serving temperature. A wine glass’s bowl helps to capture and spread a wine’s aroma and the foot allows the drink to stand upright.

If you’ve got the basics down, you’re in good shape. However, although their main parts are similar, not all wine glasses are exactly the same. If you’re looking to provide customers with a top-notch experience, the type of wine you’re serving should dictate which specific type of wine glass to use.

Red

When you’re serving a nice red, you should use a larger wine glass with a full, round bowl and a large opening. A red wine glass should have a large surface area to give the wine more contact with the air and allow for more flavor and aroma to release. It also provides a customer with enough space to dip his or her nose into the glass to get a good whiff!

If you want to go a step further than a simple red wine glass, you can stock your bar with Bordeaux, Burgundy, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, and/orPort glasses.

Bordeaux