Did you know that the type of wine glass you choose will affect the taste of your aged wine? It’s true – you could drink the same wine out of three different glasses and have three different taste experiences.

So, when you’re about to crack open a bottle of beautifully aged wine from your wine cellar, make sure you select the best wine glass for your wine.

There are as many different wine glasses as there are wines, but this doesn’t mean that you have to spend thousands of dollars on elegant glassware in order to get the full experience out of every bottle of wine from your wine cellar. So, with this in mind, let’s take a look at what determines the best wine glass for your favourite bottle of wine.

The Three Most Important Aspects of a Wine Glass

There are three main aspects of any standard wine glass – the base, the stem, and the bowl.

Wine Glass Base

The base is a flat round piece at the bottom of the bowl and keeps your wine glass standing upright (even if you aren’t!). The shape of the base may vary slightly, but its purpose remains the same.  It is simply a way to connect the stem to the bowl and to keep the bowl upright.

Some wine glasses have a thicker base than the rest of the glass.  This adds some weight to the feel of the wine glass. Then again, there are some who prefer a lighter feel to the glass.

It’s all a matter of preference as the base still only functions as a support piece and has little to do with the quality of the wine drinking experience.

Wine Glass Stem

The stem gives you a way to hold your glass, but more importantly it allows you to keep your hands from warming the wine. This is particularly important if you are drinking white wine, which needs to remain cool for the best taste. However, for a red wine, it may actually be an advantage to have the warmth of the hands on the bowl to enhance the flavour and aromas.

The stem also keeps any grubby fingerprints away from the bowl.

These days, however, you’ll find a streamlined version of wine glasses that are stemless. Stemless wine glasses have gained popularity as they are more resistant to the occasional tipping and spilling. Plus, they are a bit of a novelty because everyone is so used to seeing stemmed wine glasses.

The best of the best in stemless wine glasses is Riedel O, which many people consider to be the most unique and classy.

Interestingly, stemless wine glasses are the way to go in Italy where a lot of red and white wine are enjoyed in stemless glasses that look more like jam jars than wine glasses. This is often considered very fun and very continental!

Wine Glass Bowl

The wine glass bowl is where you will see the most variation in shape and size.  Every bowl has the same general function, holding the wine, but the variations allow more or less air into the wine to further develop the flavors.

All wine glass bowls have roughly the same shape; wider bottom, tapering upward. The ratio of wide to narrow determines which wine would fare better in which shape. The general “wider bottom, tapered top” shape allows the wine’s aroma to be captured and delivered straight to your nose and palate.

Selecting the Best Red Wine Glass for Aged Wine

Wine glasses designed for red wines are usually much more round at the bottom, tapering only slightly at the top. This gives them a wider opening, which allows you to get your nose into the glass and breathe in all of those rich red flavours.

For Bordeaux, Cabernet and Merlot wines, it is best to use a wine glass that has a large tulip or narrowing goblet. This is the most useful style of wine glass as it allows swirling but has a narrow opening to concentrate the aromas. It directs the wine straight to the back of the palate where the taste buds can get the most out of the flavor. This shape is very typical of a red wine glass.

For Burgundy, Grand Cru, Pinot, Nebbiolo, Syrah and Shiraz, a very large wine glass is often used. These large wine glasses allow the maximum exposure to air for a big or closed wine. They also add a bit of ‘buzz’ to the table when a very special wine is served in these huge glasses. This is often the only glass for ‘big red’ aficionados.

Selecting the Best White Wine Glass

White wine glasses are more of a bell shape, which allow the wine to maintain a cooler temperature. The curvature at the top of the bell shape helps the wine to contact the sides of the tongue where the sweet sensation resides.

The wider mouth of the glass also allows more air in to push the crisp, bold flavors to the surface of the wine.

Selecting the Best Sparkling Wine and Champagne Flute

The only variation in white wine glasses is the flute shape for Sparkling Wine and Champagne, which is tall and narrow.  This shape works well as it keeps the ‘bubbles’ which is part and parcel of a sparkling wine. It also keeps the chill, presenting this fun wine at its best.

This style of wine glass also keeps the wine at the back of the palate for optimal taste.

How To Choose the Best Wine Glass for Aged Wine

If you want to get the best out of your aged wine and enjoy those long years of cellaring, make sure you select the best wine glass for your wine. At a minimum, have at least a set of high quality white wine glasses and red wine glasses. The most important thing to look for in any wine glass is good, solid construction; something that feels good in your hand and looks clear and clean.

The best wine glass brand in my opinion is Riedel, available in many different styles. Visit amazon.com to browse for your perfect wine glass, in anticipation of opening up your favourite aged wine.

Whether you choose stemmed wine glasses, or stemless glasses, hold the glass, feel the weight, and consider the shape.  If the glass is pleasing to touch and to see, you have chosen the right wine glass for you!

Constructing a good wine cellar is more than just placing racks in a dark room and stacking them with wines. There are a number of variables which must be taken into consideration, and wine cellar insulation is one such variable. Proper wine cellar insulation will aid in keeping temperatures within the acceptable range and will ensure that the wine ages undisturbed.

Proper wine cellar insulation, in addition to location, lighting and vibration are all essential for a wine cellar to be considered adequate. One does not compensate for the other. So why exactly is it important for a wine cellar to be insulated? Will it have any effect on the wine itself if all the other conditions are met?

Why a Wine Cellar Requires Insulation

Wine cellar insulation is important for three main reasons:

1. Conserve on energy
2. Ensure temperature stability
3. Control humidity

No wine collector is desirous of incurring unnecessarily high energy bills as a result of poor insulation in the wine cellar. Equally scary is the thought of losing precious bottles of wine ruined because of unstable temperatures and low or high humidity levels.

Insulating a wine cellar involves not just the walls, but also the doors, windows, outlet boxes, fixtures, and any element that is likely to introduce outside air into the cellar.

Types of Wine Cellar Insulation

Insulation may be done using a variety of materials. Foam board is one such material. It is rigid and versatile and does a pretty good job if installed correctly. Wine cellars may also be lined with gyprock or drywall to achieve insulation requirements.

Another common insulation technique involves the use of fibreglass. In this scenario, the ceiling and walls are covered with fibreglass 6” thick for the best results. Where space exists below the floor, that space should be insulated as well; where the floor is made from concrete, insulation is not necessary. Using a waterproof sealer under the floor is required in cases where carpeting or wood will be used. The door of the cellar should also be insulated. Once glass is used, thermo-pane will ensure that the glass is protected against fogging and sweating.

No expense should be spared on hardware used in the wine cellar. Inferior, cheap hardware will be prone to rusting. The use of exterior grade hardware will protect against rapid deterioration of wine cellar components.

How to Select the Best Insulation for your Wine Cellar

The choice of insulation for the wine cellar is largely dependent on where the wine cellar is located, what materials were used in its construction, the budget of the wine collector, as well as the types of wines being stored.

Wine cellars above ground are a lot more difficult to insulate than those underground.  The walls for above ground wine cellars must be built with a high performance vapour barrier. This will assist in keeping moisture from entering the cellar. An insulation rating of R-13 for the walls and R-19 for the floor and ceiling is usually recommended.  If a wooden door is used, the insulation rating may have to be increased to as high as R-13 for the best results.

For wine cellars underground, an average rating of R-19 all around is usually adequate. Foam may be used for vapour control but constant monitoring will be required when the seasons change to see if additional insulation is required for greater temperature control.

Cutting corners on the insulation of the wine cellar will only prove costly in the end. Horrible tasting wine, damaged labels and awkward cocktail moments are only a few of the costly and embarrassing moments a wine collector can avoid, simply by making sure enough time and energy is invested in proper wine cellar insulation.

Wine cellar racks are the most common storage facilities for a wine collection. One of the reasons is that racks are cheaper, more flexible, and can hold a continuously growing collection of wines.

Besides flexibility and practicality, wine cellar racks are intended to hold wine bottles in a lying and angled position to preserve the taste of aging wines. With that position, wine bottles can endlessly keep the cork moist and prevent it from drying. A dried cork easily chips out, destroying the taste, aroma, and overall quality of aging wines.

Wine cellar racks vary widely on materials used, design, size, and capacity.

They are typically added in an existing wine cellar with its own humidity and temperature controller. The room has to have the ideal environment to keep the wines so that the wine cellar racks can also effectively do their main goal.

The temperature runs from 50F to 57F. As a general rule, this temperature is adjusted to mimic the temperature of caves in France, where the best wines in the world are kept. This temperature range is perfect whether for a short-term of long-term storage. Meanwhile, humidity for wine cellar racks should be maintained at 70%.

Size and Capacity of Wine Racks

Wine cellar racks can hold from one to up to thousands of wine bottles. The 4-bottle wine rack is usually used as a display item on top of another furniture piece like a table. The thousand-bottle capacity of wine cellar is typically custom-made. But the market carries wine cellar racks with up to about 400-bottle capacity.

The wine cellar racks’ bottle capacity is among the price determinants. A 3-bottle wine rack costs around $12 while a 384-bottle capacity is about $1,020.

Best Wine Racks

When choosing wine racks, it is important to always consider the size of wine bottles that can fit into each section. Most wine cellar racks are made for the common 750ml bottle. The design also varies widely – form the basic cube-like racks to the more sophisticated designs.

Another price determinant is the material used for the wine cellar racks. Wood, metal, wrought iron, and stainless steel are mostly used. Among these, wood is the easiest and also the cheapest while other materials are hard to make and typically incur higher price.

Although cheaper, what makes the wine collectors hesitant about a wooden wine rack is that the wood’s smell can penetrate into the bottle through the cork. Other materials are great replacements especially if the collector wants to preserve the wine’s taste.

Among the most recognized brands of wine cellar racks are Oenophilia, SEI, IKEA, Vintage View, Blomus, Florenz, and Perfect Fagerland.