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Choosing a wine is difficult, but there are at least lots of guides and advisory websites or books out there to help. Choosing the right wine glasses to go with your wine sometimes seems much harder!The right receptacle brings out all the right stuff in the right wine. A good wine should be appreciated for its looks, its smell, and its flavour and so should be appreciated by the eyes and nose as well as the mouth.
In a bistro or bar, the only choice you’re likely to be offered is “large or small”?  It was Professor Claus J. Riedel (as in the famous glassmaker) who was the first glass designer to realise that wines are affected by the shape and size of the wine glasses from which they are drunk.That shape will magnify the intensity of aroma for different wines or direct wine to specific parts of the tongue.Some shapes and sizes will enhance fruitiness and others tannin. Certain shapes will keep Champagne from going flat.
Whatever wine glasses you choose, avoid the contemporary cone-shaped variety.It’s impossible to swirl the wine and the wide rim does nothing for appreciating the bouquet. There are those who claim that lead crystal glasses are the only way to appreciate the aroma, colour and taste of a fine wine.Lead crystal wines glasses are beautiful, but can be expensive (unless you get them cheaper via the Internet for example) and if you can afford them, they are well worth the extra. 
So, do you really need dozens of different wine glasses and other specialist glasses such sherry glasses to be socially acceptable?Of course not!The four basic shapes that are good to have in any serious wine drinker’s cupboard:
1. White wine glasses should have a wide bowl and narrow rim.
2. Decent all-purpose red wine glasses should be shorter and wider than the white wine glass to allow better swirling and more surface area for maximum air contact – especially good for well-aged red wines.
3. Off-dry to sweet wines (like Piesporter, Liebfraumilch, Riesling, etc) should be served in glasses with a slightly flared rim. This shape guides the wine to the “sweetness” area of the palate directly.
4. The classic champagne flute is the best style for sparkling wines as the long, narrow body concentrates the bubbles, intensifying the aroma and taste.

The amount of wine made every year is simply staggering. It has been enjoyed all over the world for thousands of years and the cup of choice is almost always the glass. Have you ever asked yourself though, why from a glass? Why not from a mug, plastic cup or wooden goblet? The answer is unfortunately not that simple. Actually, wine is enjoyed from a number of different containers, other than glass, in many different places. For example, wooden cups are used in Thailand and in Japan they often drink their wine from a ceramic vase-like cup. However, the overriding choice of tableware drinking vessel, wherever you go, is glass. As it happens this is not down to glass being particularly excellent, rather the alternatives being really just not that suitable. Let take a look at them shall we.

Wood. As mentioned previously, wine is drunk from wooden cups in some places but it does have some major flaws. Firstly, if you are drinking red wine there is a high chance the wood will stain. Even if the wood is of a very high quality, staining will happen. Secondly, there is the issue of rotting, which frequency happens when wood gets wet for a long time. So every time it gets used, it would need to be dried pretty well.

Metal. If you have ever drunk wine from a metal cup you will know it’s not the best experience ever. Metals have a lot of ions and with a lot of wines, something called displacement can occur. This means that when the wine comes into contact with the metal it absorbs a number of the ions and effects the flavour. This is why you often pick up metallic notes when drink from this type of cup. Also, because of its very heat-conductive qualities, almost any other material would keep the wine cooler when you’re holding it

Ceramic.  Like glass, ceramic is non porous, does not release any of its qualities into the wine, and can be easily cleaned with a glass cloth. This is why it is a popular alternative, but there is one very simple reason that it has not been embraced in the same way as glass – It is not transparent. A large part of the experience of enjoying a fine wine is watching it swirl around the glass, admiring its body. Since glass was first developed, we have had the very simple and instinctive desire for this.

Choosing a wine is hard enough, but there are at least lots of guides and advisory websites or books out there to help.  Choosing the right wine glasses to go with your wine sometimes seems much harder!The correct glass brings out all the right stuff in the right wine. A good wine should be appreciated for its looks, its smell, and its flavour which means the eyes and nose as well as the mouth.
f you drink in a bistro or bar, the only choice you’ve usually got is “large or small”?Professor Claus J. Riedel (as in the famous glassmaker) who was the first glass designer to realise that the bouquet, taste, and finish of wines are affected by the shape and size of the wine glasses from which they are drunk.That shape will determine the depth of the aroma for different wines or direct wine to specific parts of the tongue.Some shapes and sizes will emphasise fruitiness while others will enhance tannin. Certain shapes will keep Champagne from going flat.
Whatever wine glasses you choose, avoid the contemporary cone-shaped variety.It’s impossible to swirl the wine and the wide rim is just wrong for appreciating the bouquet. There are those who claim fine lead crystal wine glasses are the only way to appreciate the aroma, colour and taste of a fine wine.Lead crystal wines glasses are beautiful, but can be expensive (unless you get them cheaper via an Internet retailer) and if you can afford them, they are well worth the extra. 
So, do you really need dozens of different wine glasses to be socially acceptable?No, not unless you want to!However, there are four basic shapes that are good to have in any serious wine drinker’s cupboard:
1.White wine glasses should have a wide bowl and narrow rim.
2.Decent all-purpose red wine glasses should be shorter and wider than the white wine glass to allow better swirling and more surface area for maximum air contact – especially good for well-aged red wines.
3.Off-dry to sweet wines (like Piesporter) should be served in wine glasses with a slightly flared rim. This shape guides the wine to the “sweetness” area of the palate much more quickly.
4.    The classic champagne flute is the best style for sparkling wines as the long, narrow body concentrates the bubbles in a small surface area, intensifying the aroma and taste.