Tonight took a 2003 Tarlant Extra Brut La Vigne Royal Blanc de Noir to one of the 3 best restaurants in Jackson Hole. Last week this wine was amazing in my Reidel Champagne stem. Tonight I was forced to drink it from the restaurant’s thick pop btl champagne stems. What a difference! The wine was still great but about 80% of what it was a week earlier in a great stem. I paid a $25 corkage to boot. Its such a bummer when a restaurant with their own impressive list can’t / won’t give a decent stem for a $25 corkage. I should put my btl back in the bag and ordered a pour of their Prosseco. I made a very poor assumption that a place this good in general would surely have a decent champagne stem.
Any chance your travel, and the 6,000 ft elevation was a factor?
Don’t think so. Our 2nd night in town. Being in JH is a distracting factor though. I really do think these cheap thick glasses degrade the wine’s ability to fully express itself. Not saying it drank like Korbel just saying it lacked the head turning traits of a week earlier in the right glass. Actually being in an awesome place often makes me think the wine was more exceptional than it was.
Craig, nose, yes, palate, no.
Actually nose yes palate yes. The nose will have a huge impact on the palate. Try drinking wine with your nose covered and see if you disagree.
I would have asked for white wine glasses. I like champagne out of them way more than out of flutes
agree Humberto.
We were at one of the top local restaurants last week and they served Champagne in a white wine stem. I was very proud of them.
I think good Burgundy stems are the best. so the sommelier we had to pay just to serve the wines we brought looked at me and said “let me do my job.” He then served the champagne in a Burgundy stem. It was an eye opener. excellent choice.
Humberto, that’s true once it’s in your mouth. I don’t think the glass affects things once the wine has passed your lips. It definitely affects things before then.
Exactly right.
Paul heres a basic article on how it does
Humberto, I’m not saying smell doesn’t influence taste, it clearly does. Once the wine is in your mouth, however, it doesn’t matter how it got there.
Not trying to be contrarian Paul but I think that it matters a lot. The preamble of smell sets the stage for taste. This is why glassware is important as a general rule. Sure the thin glass of Zaltos makes them beautiful and light but their real beauty is the enhancement of smell which readies your mouth and brain for taste and ultimately enhances it. Not only is there a smell taste link as presented in that article, but the foreplay of smell if you will, makes a large difference in the overall experience in my opinion. Mostly, though not always, for the better. There is some science to this as well but Im too lazy to look it up.
Yes but the olfactory effects continue while the wine is in the mouth so the two cannot be separated.
Cheap white wine glasses would have been FAR better than cheap flutes. I would never drink anything decent, let alone really good, out of a cheap flute. Also, I think elevation can affect the way a wine smells/tastes.
Humberto, I see what you’re saying. I haven’t noticed that effect, and I’ve tried the same wine out of different glasses where the nose was clearly different (Zalto vs. Bottega for example) but I didn’t think the flavor was different. I guess I can understand, however, that the nose might influence the overall perception of the wine even on the palate.
My Burgundy epiphany came when I was sipping Vosne Romanee Les Malconsorts 1971 from Domaine du Clos Frantin out of a DIXIE CUP on the St. Charles Streetcar during a summer thunderstorm on the way back from a trade tasting at Commander’s Palace in 1984…
Another +1. There’s the thinness of the rim, too; a thicker rim seems to interfere with how the wine flows from the glass into the mouth. I’m willing to believe that the shape of the glass and the circumference of the its opening might also affect how the wine hits the mouth, and thus how it tastes. A thinner glass also has a smaller effect on the temperature of the wine, affecting both the nose and palate. Of course, this is all a bit speculative since it’s hard to disentangle these things and any direct effects on the palate may be dominated by effects on the nose.
I drink all of my Champagne/Sparking Wines out of Oregon Pinot Stems. Much better aromas/taste for me. Craig what are you doing in Jackson Hole in the Summer?
Zalto Universals for me.
Champagne in White wine stems (or larger). Love the Zalto Universal, Russ!
Lather, rinse, repeat. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}