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How To Choose The Perfect Wine Glasses For Your Wedding List
Wine glasses - a wonderful idea for your wedding gift list. Join our expert wedding list advisors as they talk you through the best way to choose wine glasses for your wedding list.
If you’re anything like us, these will be some of the most used presents from your gift list! There’s something incredibly spoiling about drinking your favourite tipple out of a perfectly matched wine glass, instead of a slightly chipped, mismatched glass that’s likely been through multiple siblings, and survived far too many dinner parties, or even stolen from your local pub… They may have served you very well over the years and fought hard to stay intact, but perhaps it's now time to put them to rest and upgrade to high-quality glasses that will be the shining star on your dinner table for years to come.
Choosing your upgrade glasses can, however, be a slightly daunting prospect. With the huge choice of brands available to you, and the impressive range of different styles of glass for different types of wine, it can be a little overwhelming knowing where to start.
That’s where we come in. Our London Showroom in the heart of Chelsea has hundreds of different glasses available for you to see in person, from amazing brands such as Riedel, Schott, LSA, Royal Scot Crystal, Dartington and William Yeoward to name but a few. It’s one of the first things our dedicated wedding list advisors will go through with you, getting a feeling for your taste and your requirements.
We highly recommend you take glasses off the shelf and get a really good feeling for them. Are they the right weight? Is the stem too high, too short, too thin, too chunky? Do you like the feel of the glass in your hand? Can you put them in the dishwasher?! With your dedicated wedding list advisor by your side to help with any questions, this is a great place to start.
We also recommend that you use the opportunity to think about all the glasses you might want. As a real wine aficionado do you want both red and white wine glasses? Do you want them from matching ranges or do you want to mix and match to create a point of difference on your table? Or are you happy to choose one glass that does it all? These are all decisions that are made so much easier by seeing everything first hand, with the trusted advice of your wedding list advisor who is there to answer any questions you might have along the way.
Once you’ve narrowed your choices down, we recommend also selecting your other glasses that may feature on your table; do your wine glasses sit well with your water tumblers, liquor glasses and champagne glasses? Take advantage of our huge selection and play around with options until you have the perfect set sorted. If you have some glasses at home that you already love, make a note of what it is you like about these or even bring them into your meeting, so that we can help you find ones to perfectly compliment them.
Of course, all of this is made so much easier with the complimentary Nyetimber that flows freely in every meeting in our dedicated showroom. We never have more than 2 couples in at any time, so you can ensure total privacy and the full attention of your dedicated wedding list advisor.
TIPS for choosing wine glasses for your gift list
White Wine
- White wines should stay chilled with limited exposure to oxygen. They are best enjoyed in tall, U-shape wine glasses with a smaller bowl. This helps to preserve floral aromas, maintain a cooler temperature and deliver the aromas to the nose.
- Always hold by the stem so the heat from your hand doesn’t warm up the wine - for this reason, stemless wine glasses are not ideal for white wine.
Red Wine
- Red wines tend to have a fuller body and a stronger flavour and therefore demand a larger glass.
- With a number of different aromas, the taste of your red wine can be highly dependent upon their oxygen exposure. A wide bowled glass allows the wine’s taste to continuously develop as it allows more oxygen into the glass.
- Swirl a glass of red wine before drinking to maximise air contact, allowing the wine’s flavour to develop
Sparkling Wine
There is lots of varying research on which type of champagne glass is best for developing the flavours and aromas. We think it ultimately comes down to preference. We have a wide range of coupes, flutes, tulip champagne flutes and stemless glasses for you to choose from.
Crystal vs Glass
One of the unique properties of crystal wine glasses is that they are capable of being spun thinner whilst still maintaining their strength. It is said that the thinner the wine glass, the better the interaction between the wine and your palate. To enable crystal wine glasses to be strong and thin, and therefore achieve that delicate look, minerals, like lead, are often added to the crystal to strengthen the composite.
The Wedding Present Company stock a variety of both lead and lead-free crystal glasses for all wine types, both of which feature in the line ups of many reputable and trusted brands.
Glass wine glasses are made thicker than crystal glasses and so they are typically more durable, and more cost-effective. Glass wine glasses are also non-porous, unlike their crystal counterparts, which means that you can put them in the dishwasher and they won’t absorb chemicals or aromas.
If you are a couple that considers yourselves connoisseurs of wine and love to throw parties with like-minded friends and family, crystal glasses are worth adding to your wedding gift list.
Then there's always the option of casual wine glasses; perfect for those everyday drinks and long, lazy al-fresco days. Here you can have a bit of fun - anything goes. Stemless, patterned, bistro-style - there's something to suit every taste.