Читать книгу The Wine Etiquette Guide - Your Defense Against Wine Snobbery - Chuck Blethen - Страница 15

“If we sip the wine, we find dreams coming upon us out of the imminent night.”

- D.H. Lawrence, Grapes

Hold a wine glass by its stem. Watch a well-trained bus boy or server at a restaurant setting a table or serving wine. The knowledgeable ones will always hold the glass by the stem as they set a table. Remember that one of the important steps in proper wine evaluation is "appearance." If you hold the wine glass by the bowl, rather than the stem, you will get fingerprints all over the glass. When tasting white wines, in addition to fingerprints, the warmth from your hands will unnecessarily warm up the properly chilled glass of wine.

Some women have complained that holding a wine glass by its stem feels unsafe or unstable. Extending your small finger to rest on or under the base will make it much more steady.

It is also acceptable to hold a wine glass by its base between your thumb and index finger (bottom of base resting on your index finger) if you are standing at a party for an extended period of time.

There have been recent wine glass developments by prominent glassmakers. They have brought forth wine glasses without stems. This is clearly an attempt to take advantage of the beer drinking society of America. Glasses without stems offer a more comfortable feel to those who are accustomed to drinking beer. It also offers a more stable base and makes quaffing wine more acceptable than sipping from a stemmed glass. Missing from this effort to appeal to the beer drinking society is the ultra thin rims of a quality wine glass. It may be a market fad but keep an eye on how these new drinking vessels affect future wine drinkers. I am clearly old school and prefer to drink my wine out of a stemmed glass with a paper-thin rim – the wine just tastes better.