Can good wine glasses change your enjoyment of wine?

Do you think it's possible that the shape of glass can change your enjoyment of a wine? I do.
 
Pour yourself a little wine in a plastic beaker and also some in a decent wine glass, the sort that narrows towards the top. Now carefully swirl them both - not at the same time or you will spill some - and then smell the wine. I guarantee the wine in the glass will at least smell of something like a wine while the one in the plastic beaker won't.


I've just been to a presentation and tasting hosted by Riedel UK where the same wine was poured into two good quality wine glasses but of different shapes and the aromas were quite different. I did this twice putting an aged Coniglio Hawkes Bay chardonnay into Riedel's montrachet glass and then Riedel's sauvignon glass. The aromas in the montrachet glass were wonderful - buttery, creamy, vanillla and all quite intense. The aromas of the same wine but in the sauvignon glass were much less intense with more of an alcohol burn.


I then did this with an Aussie cabernet first of all pouring it in the right glass for the grape variety, Riedel's cabernet glass and then doing the same in their glass for pinot noir. Again the wine in the right glass for the grape variety smelled glorious. So there is no doubt in my mind that the shape of the glass does make a difference to the smell of the wine - and it also makes a difference to the taste as well. 


The same experiment with the two wines in the right and "wrong" glass did show a taste difference although for me the difference was not as huge as the aroma difference. The chardonnay didn't have the layers of flavour in the sauvignon glass than it had in the montrachet glass. The cabernet was jammy and alcoholic tasted from the pinot noir glass.


This can be explained by the way the juice hits your mouth and so which part of your palate gets the benefit of it. Different parts of the mouth react in different ways to acidity, flavours and tannins. It follows therefore that, given the flow of the wine is affected by the shape of the glass directing the wine to specific parts of your mouth, the wine really does taste different.


I'm not suggesting for a moment that a different glass is needed for each grape varietal you drink but don't underestimate the shape of the glass you chose to drink your favourite wine out of. It is absolutely worth buying decent glasses to fully appreciate your wine.

International Grenache Day on Adegga

It’s International Grenache Day on Friday.

As a keen user of Adegga I’ve added an event to allow others who wish to take part “online” a chance to share their thoughts about grenache.

So far those taking part have added ten wines and having had a quick look at them it has reminded me of the sheer diversity of this grape. I’m looking forward to appreciating the versatility of the grape as I taste through some samples.

At the last count on Adegga, of the ten wines most were from France with representation from Australia, Spain and Portugal. Seven of them are blends and three are single varietals. Of the ten, seven are reds, two are roses and one is a white. I’m a big fan of Southern French wines which include grenache blanc in them.

Come and join the small but merry band of online tasters on Adegga on Friday!

South Africa is a winner again

No - this is not an overdue reference to South Africa successfully hosting the World Cup but refers to the popularity of the wines served at my daughter's wedding last weekend. As she had got engaged on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town it seemed appropriate to serve South African wines on her big day.

Between the ceremony and wedding breakfast we drank copious amounts of Simonsig's Kaapse Vonkel 2008 vintage a wonderfully tasty good value "method cap classique" sparkling wine. Alongside was Windhoek's beer mainly drunk, naturally, by the blokes. I note from the latest edition of Off Licence News there is going to be a big marketing campaign shortly to promote Windhoek building on the success of it during the World Cup.

During the meal we had

• Obikwa chenin blanc '10
• Vrede en Lust rose '10
• The Wolftrap syrah mouvedre viognier '09

The toast was Graham Beck's sparkling rose brut. When I had chosen this particular wine I tweeted about it (I'm @grapefan) and got a response from the winemaker Pieter Ferreira (@bubblesferreira) wishing us all luck on the big day. The power of social media.

The wines were all really appreciated by the 100 or so guests and big thanks to SA Wines Online and Oddbins Tunbridge Wells for so ably supplying them and at a decent discount as well. I'm especially delighted for SAWOL as they have just been awarded Decanter's Specialist Merchant of the Year. Their customer service from the initial supply of a tasting case for the wedding through to the on-time delivery has been exemplary. And they are such nice people as well!

Matching Armagnac with food

Skeptical at first that it would be possible in any way to match Armagnac with food, I came away from a recent Armagnac and Indian food matching event with a greater appreciation for this eau de vie. Armagnac is like malt whiskey - complex, lots of styles, a drink to savour and appreciate -but without the branding you get with the bigger malt producers.

On arrival I was given a glass of white Armagnac mixed with rosehip and lychee. Wonderfully lifting this shows Armagnac producers are being innovative by producing a totally new drink - well, at least new to me.

Each course had a range of Armagnacs matched with tasting samples of the wonderful food produced by the chefs at London's Tamarind restaurant. (Click on the picture above to get more detail of the food and the Armagnacs.) Although I don't think any of the guests would actually have said there was an Armagnac to go with every course, the final food sample - a wonderful teaspoon of carrot fudge cooked with melon seeds and raisins- did go very well with a chilled 15 years old from Samalens in Bas-Armagnac. The food brought out the caramel in the eau de vie.

The event certainly succeeded in spreading the word and raising the profile of this under appreciated spirit. Focussing on the samples reinforced the complexity of the Armagnacs. It's a shame that currently they are really only appreciated by the connoisseur. The BNIA would like to change that.