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Sunday 27 April 2014

Monster wine glasses

We've been looking for a set of wine glasses. I've managed to reduce our set of six, bought some decades ago, to three, so we're in the market for replacements.

After all, when guests come round one has no wish to serve the wine in three glasses and a teacup. Even the best china teacup doesn't quite offset the social embarrassment of not having a full set.

There is a problem though - modern wine glasses tend to be huge. These Waterford Elegance Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Glasses from John Lewis hold 790ml of wine - more than a bottle.


Now maybe a fastidious wine trougher needs the whole bottle, but some of us have less formidable requirements. Anyhow, at £50 a pop, surely a pack of straws would be cheaper.

This stunning stemmed glass has an enlarged bulb - designed to enhance the flavour of the full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon variety of wine, by encouraging oxidation.The Elegance collection from Waterford is exquisitely made from lead-free crystal*. 

*Or glass as it's often called.

Fortunately 790ml isn't yet the standard size, but wine glasses generally seem much larger than they were a few decades ago. 350ml is not uncommon and that's almost half a bottle. 

6 comments:

Macheath said...

I found myself pondering the same issue at the Tavern a few years ago.

The usefully robust 125ml glasses of the 1970s have been completely usurped by the long-stemmed and capacious versions seen in scores of soap operas, sitcoms and reality shows.

A friend whose brother worked in the industry once told me that nothing finds its way onto an American TV set by accident; every last piece of interior decor is the result of extensive negotiation between sponsors and the TV company. His firm secured, among other things, extensive placement for their whisky glasses in 'Dallas' by ensuring that the scriptwriters made bourbon Sue-Ellen's tipple of choice.

With large wine companies sponsoring shows like 'Friends', the result is to make the 1/3-bottle serving of wine appear normal, or even desirable by emulating the preternaturally beautiful and trendy people on TV.

You and I, I'm afraid, are clearly out of touch with the prevailing aesthetic.

A K Haart said...

Mac - yet 125ml still feels about right to us. The social pleasure of offering then pouring another glass is lost, or at least diminished if you simply upend the bottle over a bucket-sized glass.

Demetrius said...

Agree with Mac and yourself. We have a range, but mostly use the smaller ones because you get more glasses out of the bottle. So you think you are having more but still have a limit.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - that's how we look at it too. Otherwise people may as well use beer glasses.

James Higham said...

I've 125ml ones and they're just right for my level of consumption. Agree most today are too big.

A K Haart said...

James - knowing you will only be sipping it also helps when opting for that more expensive bottle.