Upgrading Your Sippie Cups

Some do"s and don"ts when it comes to buying wine glasses By [Josh Perilo] â??What on earth are you drinking out of? I gasped. My good friend Aaron froze mid-pour as he stared down at the bottle of burgundy in his hand, then at the plastic, fake bejeweled chalice that he was pouring the burgundy into. His face registered no shame whatsoever. â??This is my sippin" chalice, he said dryly. â??It"s how I get my drank on. I tried to reason with him as I brought out glass after glass to demonstrate why his strange, Lil Jon-esque sippie cup wasn"t the prime choice for the beverage du jour. He listened politely to my educated diatribe, then, when I had finished, stared at me blankly again and tipped back his cup for an enormous gulp. â??Still tastes like wine to me. TouchÃ&Copy;, Aaron. Indeed it does. And, by all means, my rule of thumb with wine glasses (as with wine in general) is: Drink what you like out of what you like. That being said, there are definitely types of glasses that can enhance your drinking experience. Buyer beware, however! There are plenty of flourishes and design elements added to a lot of high-priced wine glasses that not only do nothing to add to the enjoyment of your wine but can actually take away from the overall experience. Today, I"m going to walk you through some of the do"s and don"ts when it comes to buying your next set of wine glasses. Do buy cut-glass-lipped wine glasses. The glass on these vessels tends to feel much thinner, and sometimes consumers misinterpret that as cheapness. It is not! A good glass does as little as possible to get in the way of the wine's one way that is done is by using a very thin glass construction, and the other is to design the lip of the glass (from which you actually sip) as cut glass. This gives the liquid as little barrier as possible to pass from inside the glass to your palate. There"s also less spillage than with traditional rolled-lip wine glasses. Don"t buy crystal. Yes, it is beautiful. Yes, it is a great investment and a fantastic hand-me-down to be cherished from generation to generation. It is not, however, a great material for making an effective wine glass; it can"t be blown into the most effective shapes to enhance wine"s taste and scent, in addition to the fact that it is always thick and heavy. Save the crystal for the holiday punch. Do buy those glasses with the enormous bowls. They may seem ostentatious, but there"s a reason for their size. Red wine glasses tend to have slightly larger bowls than those for white wine, but they serve the same basic purpose. Because half of taste is actually smell, to accurately capture and concentrate the complex scents of your wine, a good glass will have a bowl that is large at the bottom and tapered at the top. When the wine is swirled in the glass, the aromas are released into the bowl and then trapped by the narrower opening. When you stick your nose into the glass for a hearty whiff, you experience the concentrated notes of the wine you are about to enjoy. Don"t buy colored glass. This seems harmless, especially given how beautiful some of these glasses can be. But if you think about it, part of the enjoyment (and in professional wine circles, part of the judgment of the quality) of wine is its color and visible body. This is obviously impossible to judge through a red, blue or otherwise tinted glass. Do buy glasses with stems. I may receive some flack for this, but I am a traditionalist and truly believe that the best glasses are those with stems. Holding the glass by the bowl changes the temperature of the liquid you are drinking. And if you put a lot of effort into serving your wines at the correct temperature, this can throw a wrench in all that great planning. Of course, you can always take a tip from Aaron and go â??chalice style. Up to you! Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.