I have my favorites based on the age of the Champagne. I like Glasvin Prestige for younger drinking Champagnes, a Lehmann 60 for middle-aged Champagnes and a Lehmann 45 for aged Champagnes. The consistent theme among these glasses is they all have a tulip shape which helps to bring out the nose more for me.
Grassl champagne glass is fine. I use it frequently.
I think the discussion about glass usage for champagne is great, but one thing I rarely see talked about is that when you use a regular wine glass, you rarely get the same mousse as a designated champagne glass because of the lack of micro-etches in the dead center base of the bowl.
I do think that makes a difference in what you’re going to perceive. That said, about half the time I drink champagne out of my Kane Glasvin glass, which is great with champagne. I prefer it to the Grassl Mineralite and Liberte glasses, which are both solid. I also like the GGG, but very few bubbles there. Nice shape though quite breakable.
I know Andrew dismissed this, but I actually DO think that bubbles are clearly a part of how champagne should be enjoyed. There is a reason many champagne houses use etched glasses to ensure a mousse during tastings. There is a reason the bubbles are in there in the first place. And frankly I prefer younger champagnes to older champagnes in part because of the lively effervescence, which I think accentuates the wine, and because I think that as champagnes get old they get more monotonous, not more unique. I am certainly not alone on this forum in those beliefs, even among the “What Champagne” thread where many of use drink more champagne than anything else.
I should note that during production, I asked the folks at Glasvin if they could micro-etch the center base of the bowl specifically so it could be used as a champagne stem and was told no. But I did try!
Can you and/or anyone else explain the micro-etching and bubbles issue a bit more? I’m new to that.
Do all or most Champagne glasses have the micro-etching? If not, what general level of ones start having those? Like, do all Riedel and Spiegelau Champagne glasses have them, or maybe the low priced models don’t; do decent but standard ones you might buy at Costco, Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel have them; etc.?)
Click that link to Scientific American, which addresses how the CO2 gets trapped and then beads, giving the classic mousse you see in flutes. Dust, microfibers from a drying rag, or bits of a paper towel will also cause a ton of bubbling. Pull a flute from a cabinet and one fresh out of the dishwasher after an air drying cycle and you’ll get one bubbling over and one handling the pour pretty well. Do a fresh dishwashed and dried normal wine glass right out of the washer and you’ll get even less bubbling up on the same pour and fewer bubbles as you drink.
Fair enough. I find excessive effervescence to be a distraction from the wine hiding behind the bubbles and generally prefer vinous Champages with some age to the aperitif style (which is more about the bubbles).
I was at a Ruinart tasting once where they poured the basic Ruinart next to the Dom Ruinart and asked the crowd to comment on the mousse. The NV had a bunch of bubbles clinging to the side of the glass while the Dom hada steady stream rising up from the center. All sorts of comments were made with silly theories on how that showed the Dom was the grander wine. Then the winemaker confessed he’d cheated and the only difference was that he made a mark with his pocketknife in the base of the second glass and the bubbles have nothing to do with the wine, just the laws of thermodynamics.