The amount of wine made every year is simply staggering. It has been enjoyed all over the world for thousands of years and the cup of choice is almost always the glass. Has the question ever crossed your mind though, why glass? Why not from a mug, wooden goblet or plastic cup? Sadly, there is no definitive answer for this. You will find in fact a number of different alternative materials used in various countries that wine is drunk from. For example in Japan, wine is drunk from a ceramic vase-shaped container and in Thailand, wooden cups are often used. However, the overriding choice of tableware drinking vessel, wherever you go, is glass. It’s really more a result of other methods not being appropriate than glass being that special in any way. Lets examine what else is on offer.

Wood. As mentioned previously, wine is drunk from wooden cups in some places but it does have some major flaws. Firstly, if you are drinking red wine there is a high chance the wood will stain. Even if it is very hard wood, discolouring will occur. Secondly, there is the issue of rotting, which frequency happens when wood gets wet for a long time. So every time it gets used, it would need to be dried pretty well.

Metal. If you have ever drunk wine from a metal cup you will know it s not the best experience ever. Metals have a lot of ions and with a lot of wines, something called displacement can occur. This means that ions can be released into the wine when it is in the vessel and these result in an altered taste. This is why you often pick up metallic notes when drink from this type of cup. Also, because of its very heat-conductive qualities, almost any other material would keep the wine cooler when you re holding it

Ceramic. Like glass, ceramic is non porous, does not release any of its qualities into the wine, and can be easily cleaned with a glass cloth. For these reasons it utilised an an alternative, however it will never be as popular as glass due to one elemental floor – you can’t see through it. Part of the joy of drinking a nice wine is swirling it around the glass examining its colours and textures. The desire is a very instinctive one and something that has been around since the development of glass.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 8:45 am and is filed under Food and Drink: Wine Spirits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.