The Hunt for the Perfect Wine Glasses

Chardonnay, Burgundy, Bordeaux; wine glasses have expanded past the basic red or white variety. If they make wine, someone’s going to make a glass for it. And while I’m all about drinking a French Burgundy out of a Riedel Burgundy glass, sometimes aesthetics win out. I’ve been obsessed with the beautiful wine glasses featured on the cover of the Food and Wine October 2006 issue, and insofar have been unable to locate them. I’ve searched the internet far and wide for a wine glass that has a delicate stem that meets a flat bottom and proceeds to curve in instead of straight up. While not quite as delicate, the search did lead me to the iittala Essence Red Wine glasses. Available at http://www.finnstyle.com/essenceredwine.html, these elegant glasses are dishwasher safe and a little different from what you’d find in most cupboards. I also ran across the Rosenthal TAC 02 11-1/4-Inch Bordeaux Wine Glasses, available on amazon.com. I’ve noticed these glasses popping up at a variety of restaurants lately. Perhaps the most affordable and substantial glasses I came across were the Lira wine glasses at www.cb2.com. At $3.50-3.95 per glass, I could afford to use these while still on the trek for the perfect Food and Wine glasses.