This is the best wine glass to add to your home collection
I’ve been writing about wine — and wine glasses — for years. If you enjoy sipping wine from a veritable piece of art, this is the one glass to get.
Céline Bossart
Céline Bossart
The StandArt's older, more elegant sister, the Gold Edition, is mouth-blown and light as a feather at just under three ounces — I squealed when I first removed the latter from its black gift box after both models arrived on my doorstep in the name of comparative research.
I immediately poured a few ounces of Pinot Noir into each and began my analysis.
Again, these two glasses share the exact same shape, which is designed to bring out the best of almost any still or sparkling wine with its broad bowl and gently-sloped walls. My first thought when tasting from the StandArt was that it made my $20 Pinot feel like a $50 Pinot, the Gold Edition amping up the experience even further with its razor-thin lip and barely-thereness. Over the next few days, I tasted a handful of other wines (Provençal rosé, brut Champagne, Rioja, Bordeaux, and more) from both just to see if they really were as great for all-purpose wine drinking as advertised, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Also, to my surprise, both glasses are dishwasher-safe and impressively durable thanks to their lack of stress points. It was almost too easy to fall in love with these glasses, so I asked a few other industry experts for their thoughts.
“Customers often ask me if the wine glass makes a difference,” said Justus Benjamin, a certified sommelier who owns and operates Boutique Vino, a wine shop in San Diego. “And it does.” It’s for this very reason Benjamin has been selling Gabriel-Glas in his store for the past four years.
“The shape of the Gabriel-Glas allows it to function as three wine glasses in one,” he explained. “The tulip shape — the little black dress of wine glasses — wonderfully enhances the aromas and taste of all wines, from Sauvignon Blancs to Cabernets. And once you've picked one up, all other glasses will seem heavy by comparison.” Though he attests to the durability of both models, Benjamin does recommend being selective about bringing these out when serving guests. “They should be saved for special occasions, guests you trust, or those among us who can light cigars with $20 bills,” he added.
Nicole MacKay, a WSET Level 3-certified wine and food writer, chimed in as a fellow advocate for the AP and lover of the Gabriel-Glas Gold Edition. “I’m a big fan of the ‘one-for-all’ concept but the Gold Edition really takes drinking wine to the next level. I want to get the best out of every wine bottle so I actually use the glass for everyday tasting, but the silhouette and pristine elegance make the glass look great on a table filled with loved ones,” she told me.
I also spoke with Paola Embry, CEO and wine director at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona, who recommends the machine-made StandArt for casual everyday drinking, pointing out that this glass has a wonderfully fine rim despite coming in at less than half the cost of its mouth-blown counterpart, the Gold Edition. “Both glasses are as light as a feather, have a super thin lip, and a perfect size bowl,” she said. “One of the more important aspects of great glassware that I look for is the thinness of the rim.”
Depending on how often you drink wine at home and how precious you are with sharing your fine glassware, stocking up on both is not only a smart move for your wine collection but a functional way to do something nice for yourself after the year we’ve all had.
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