How To Choose The Perfect Wine Glasses For Your Wedding List
Master the art of selecting the perfect glass for reds, whites, champagne or sparkling wine. Join our expert wedding list advisors as they talk you through the best way to choose wine glasses for your wedding list.
Read time:
4 minutes
Wine glasses are a wonderful idea for your wedding gift list, and if you’re anything like us, these will be some of the most used presents from your registry! 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.
Credit: LSA International
Why you should add wine glasses to your wedding gift list?
If you’re anything like us, wine glasses 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. The wedding gift list is the perfect opportunity to upgrade to high-quality glasses that will be the shining star on your dinner table for years to come.
Credit: Sam Gray
How To Choose Your Wedding Glass for Your Gift List?
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 Zwiesel, LSA International, 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 suggest 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.
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.
"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?"
TIPS FOR CHOOSING WHITE WINE GLASSES
White wines should stay chilled with limited exposure to oxygen. So when you're picking the perfect glass for white wine, we'd recommend opting for 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. You should always hold your white wine glass 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.
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Credit: LSA International
TIPS FOR CHOOSING RED WINE GLASSES
Firstly, red wines tend to have a fuller body and a stronger flavour and therefore demand a larger wine 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. Our pro tip? Swirl a glass of red wine before drinking to maximise air contact, allowing the wine’s flavour to develop.
TIPS FOR CHOOSING CHAMPAGNE & SPARKLING WINE GLASSES
There is a 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.
Credit: Nichole Hains
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Crystal vs Glass Wine Glasses: What's Difference?
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.
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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. 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 lineups 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.
Credit: Issy Granger
Don't forget to consider adding casual wine glasses to your gift list. They are perfect for those everyday drinks and long, lazy al-fresco days. Here you can have a bit of fun - anything goes. Stemless, patterned or bistro glasses - there's something to suit every style and taste.
Explore our glassware for red, white and sparkling wine in our online showroom, or book your Chelsea showroom appointment to browse through hundreds of different glasses in person.
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.