By Emily Shartin, Globe Staff | December 11, 2005
For Sandy Block, there are both psychological and physiological reasons to drink wine from the right glass. Psychologically speaking, it can simply feel better to drink from an elegant glass with a long stem, he says.
Physiologically speaking, wine will taste different served in a poorly designed glass.
Block is the vice president of beverages for Legal Sea Foods, and one of 22 Masters of Wine in the United States. It's a rare distinction earned by passing a rigorous exam that includes blind tasting and identifying 36 wines.
With such a comprehensive knowledge of wine, you might think Block, who also teaches at Boston University's Elizabeth Bishop Wine Resource Center, would have a cabinet full of glasses of different sizes and shapes -- one for sauvignon blanc, one for Bordeaux, one for Montrachet. But Block prefers to keep it simple.
'That to me is a little bit obsessive," he says. 'To me, you just need one."
And it's nothing fancy. A wine glass should have a stem with a rounded bowl perched on top of it. The top should be slightly narrower to concentrate the aroma or nose.
'You're able to get the true character of the wine," Block says, holding up a glass in the wine cellar at Legal's in Park Square.
Legal Sea Foods typically serves wine in one of two similar glasses. One is a 12-ounce version that it uses for wines sold by the glass. The other is a larger 19.75-ounce version with room to swirl the wine and let it 'breathe," or mix with the air to open up its flavor -- this is often appropriate with full-bodied reds or complex whites such as Burgundies or Alsatian Rieslings. The glasses have slightly thicker stems that are not easily broken in the hustle and bustle of the restaurant.
Glasses like these are available for as little as $6 to $7 each, Block says, which is a reasonable price to pay. Stores he suggests visiting include Brookline Liquor Mart, Martignetti's in Boston and Revere, and Marty's in Newton and Boston.
The Austrian company Riedel offers a dizzying array of glasses for every varietal. Their prices range from $25 for a set of two stemless glasses to $100 a glass from their most expensive collection.
Riedel also offers a less expensive line at Target, priced at about $40 for a set of four.
Stemless glasses, which are gaining in popularity, can be good for tasting, but Block doesn't recommend them for drinking. The heat from your hands will affect the temperature of the wine.
Block, who presides over a list of 800 wines at the Park Square Legal, calls Riedel the 'gold standard."
The fanciest glasses he owns are Baccarat champagne flutes, which were a gift and not something he would have bought himself. (Baccarat glasses can cost an average of $100 each.)
But rather than getting obsessed about the 'perfect" glass, Block recommends finding one set and spending your time enjoying the wine instead.
'I'm not that fussy about it," he says. 'I'm looking for functionality."
