Santa Margherita

Just as, in the kitchen, the presentation and decoration of dishes have become fundamental, the style and sophistication of place settings are also of great importance today.
Glasses are perhaps the iconic decorative element in this new trend, also representing as  they do invaluable technical instruments for enjoying wines at their best. Normally goblet-shaped glasses are used, so that one can hold the stem and not influence the temperature of the liquid contained therein. The form of the vessel is determined by the relationship between the lip (or rim), the bowl (the middle part)  and the base. By altering these three dimensions, one can obtain infinite shapes, each of which can have a positive or negative effect on the wine, influencing in particular the shape of the “blade” of wine that arrives on the tongue.
Fresh, aromatic white wines are served in slender, long-stemmed glasses with a slightly flared lip, a feature which concentrates the bouquet at the base, allowing it to rise out of the top of the glass better. This is a feature which is also seen in the Champagne glass or coupe, ideal for enjoying sweet sparkling wines or naturally fermented sweet wines.
However, the coupe is not the ideal glass for dry sparkling wines: these, if being served on their own, should be drunk in a tall glass known as a flute and this is the only case where a glass is filled to the top (for other wines the glass should be only about a third full). This type of glass allows one to evaluate better than most the perlage (the intensity, persistence and finesse of the bubbles), even if, on the nose, it tends to over-accentuate the “pungent” effect of the carbon dioxide. It is therefore preferable, especially if a sparkling wine is served with full-flavored dishes, to use large, tulip-shaped glasses that can highlight the wine’s richness, structure and complexity.
More full-bodied white wines are better served in a larger, long-stemmed glass, which should narrow towards the rim so as to concentrate the more complex aromas.
Rosé wines and young red wines should be served in olive-shaped glasses that narrow slightly towards the top, so as to highlight the wine’s fruity primary aromas. For red wines as well, the more complex the wine is, the larger the glass should be in order to guarantee good oxygenation.
Dessert wines and fortified wines call for smaller glasses, but these can vary depending on what the wine is being served with and also on the serving temperature.
If you do not want to crowd your sideboard with dozens of glasses the best thing is to buy tulip-shaped glasses, ideally a bit larger (but of the same shape) as so-callled ISO tasting glasses, which are suitable for any type of wine. They are shaped like the flower from which they take their name and narrow towards the rim, allowing one’s nose to almost block the mouth of the glass and thereby perceive the bouquet as fully as possible.
And how about a decanter? For serving young or moderately aged red wines it is quite useless (even if is undoubtedly attractive and trendy), whereas it can be of some use when serving wines that have spent a long time in the bottle, but only to avoid pouring sediment into your glass and certainly not to leave the wine “resting” in it for several hours. (That way all the aromas, which have taken years to form, just evaporate!) The right glass, especially if it is large (as it should be for red wines) and if the wine is poured into it a short time before it is due to be drunk, offers a perfect guarantee that the wine will oxygenated in the correct manner, without any risk of losing the optimum moment for tasting because of excessive contact with the air.