Stem or no stem?
Does it really matter? Plus: other thoughts from this week…
Really…truthfully…you should drink wine in whatever cup you desire. Stem or stemless? Mason jar? Out of the bottle with a straw? Wine is wine and should be enjoyed, and if you have a preferred way to drink it, then you don’t have to listen to me. Seriously. The world of wine already feels pretentious enough, so there’s no reason to complicate things.
But if you had to truly decide which kind of glass to drink out of — stem or stemless — I would have to lean toward a stemmed glass.
Sure, the look of it is obviously huge; a glass with a stem is elegant and classic. But, like many things in wine, there’s so much more to consider besides the look of your glass when it comes to sipping on your vino.
Stems are for your hands.
People casually hold a glass from the bowl all the time, which I assume is why the stemless glass is so popular; it’s like having a usual wineglass, but a lot more sturdy. However, your hands are warm, which means they are warming up your wine. If you hold the glass by the bowl, your hand is going to easily warm the temperature of that wine, which completely changes around the flavor. When your wine gets warmer, it will taste even more alcoholic, losing that sense of crispness or freshness that you desire — especially for a crisp white, like Sauvignon Blanc.
Stems are for swirling.
The second reason has to do with swirling the wine. Again, swirling your wine does come with the whole elegance and romanticism of enjoying a glass. But it also…shocker…has a purpose.
When you swirl a glass of wine, you’re actually introducing oxygen into the wine and helping to open it up. This enhances the flavors and give you an even more aromatic experience. For sommeliers, this is extremely helpful for being able to taste a wine that might have just been opened. Swirling also helps with understanding more about the wine. Does it have long legs? What’s the color? Does the color stain the glass? All of these attributes matter for the grape varieties used to make that wine, and where it is grown/produced.
Unfortunately, swirling a stemless glass is much trickier. There’s a chance that you could spill some wine over or completely lose your grip on it altogether.
But again, it’s really up to your preference.
Yes, I’m fully aware that glasses with stems tend to be more expensive, and are also prone to breaking compared to the stemless variety. I mean, who really wants to wash a wineglass by hand when the stemless go right in the dishwasher?
However, I also see drinking wine as an elegant experience. I want the best tools in my kitchen when I cook, the best tech I can (hopefully) afford to write or listen to music or watch TV, the best quality clothes to last me a long time. I also want the best when it comes to wine. I want glasses that are beautiful to look at, and also enhance my drinking experience. Sure, it’s a little bit of an investment, and definitely a risk. (Hello, butter fingers.) But this is where I’m going to pull out the good ol’ trusty “YOLO” and say that I only get to do this once, so why the f**k not?
If I had to really YOLO, I would choose to buy a collection of Spiegelau Definition Universal Glasses at $65 for a set of two. (Why Universal? Another day, another newsletter.)
And by choose I mean I will be buying them after I finish this program. My husband has already been informed.
Extra thoughts from this week to ponder on…
Before I close up this week’s newsletter, I have to admit, I really wanted to make a few jokes about wine and this week’s election. Something to the effect of “drink wine in whatever contraption you want, this week was hard enough,” and so on. But, to be totally honest, writing those words felt slimy to me. Addiction is a serious disease that so many people battle through, and using a substance to “deal with” a stressful situation or an emotion isn’t the kind of behavior that I want to condone. Yes, this week was hard. Yes, it caused even more divide in our country. Yes, many of us are angry. But the bottle is not meant to be a medicated answer for how we feel.
I think, the only way that the bottle could be the answer is to use it as a tool to invite conversation. To bring people to the table and have open, honest, grace-filled, compassionate conversations with one another. Wine can be an excellent tool for creating comfortable spaces for people to open up and connect — there are thousands of years of history backing up that claim.
No, it does not solve many of the rights and freedoms that we see are on the line with this election, and many of us have a right to be angry and grieve about these things as we continue to reside in a country that claims that we can live freely to be ourselves.
But I do think creating spaces of honest, open conversation will help. Because screaming at each other clearly doesn’t.
Wine of the Week
The wine this week is a Vignerons d'Estezargues Cotes du Rhone Les Oliviers 2022, from the Rhône valley in France. The wine is a blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, and Syrah.
My tasting notes
Appearance: Ruby in color, moderate intensity, more on the developing side
Nose: Aromas of red fruits like cherry and strawberry, cedar, and black pepper. There isn’t any evidence of new oak.
Palate: The wine is dry with high acidity, medium bodied, with silky tannins and a long flavored finish.
Final conclusion
A velvety, ripe red wine with notes of ripe cherry and strawberry, with a hint of black fruits and a kick of black pepper on the finish.