At some point, we reached Peak Glassware: Glasses for Bordeaux, Burgundy, Syrah, Chardonnay, Riesling, and beyond. Do you want Champagne in a coupe or flute? Does anyone actually like either one? For every region, grape, and occasion, there’s a glass for it. Are all of these necessary?
Enter the universal glass. A single glass meant for every type of wine has become the anchor of many stemware collections. Some companies even make the universal glass their singular focus. But what makes for a good universal glass, and can it really pull its weight when it comes to wine appreciation?
A Universal Glass For All
Although details vary by manufacturer, a universal glass is a featherweight stemmed vessel with a shallow bowl and straight sides that slightly taper towards the opening. As the name suggests, it is a shape that’s meant to work across a spectrum of wine styles.
I remember the first time I picked up Zalto’s Universal Glass. Ethereally light, the thin stem leaving just the slightest pressure on my finger pads, it was a revelation.
Zalto, created in 2004, quietly hit the US market in 2005. Its presence was largely word-of-mouth at first, but soon gained traction. After a few fits and starts—the 2008 recession didn’t do it any favors—it entered the larger drinking lexicon in the early 2010s. Ironically, Zalto’s now-famous Universal Glass was originally created for mineral-driven white wines, according to Christoph Hinterleitner, General Manager of Zalto. But due to its size—larger than other white wine glasses on the market—it proved to be a versatile option for all types of wines, from red to sparkling.
Sommeliers swore by it. It was the glass of choice at Michelin-starred restaurants such as New York’s Le Bernardin. But it was also available to consumers, not just wine professionals. At $75 per glass, it was eye-poppingly more expensive than what most people were accustomed to paying, but it allowed wine lovers to recreate a fine wine experience at home.
Other glassware companies caught on to the Marie Kondo-fication of our cupboards. New companies and new iterations of universal glasses hit the market. Some, like Gabriel-Glas and the Jancis Robinson x Richard Brendon glass, remain devoted to one single vessel. Others, like Josephinehütte and Glasvin—even Zalto—see the universal glass as core to the line, but do offer variations for red, white, and sparkling.
The term “universal” became ubiquitous, a far more fitting name than the utilitarian “all-purpose”—more apt to a cleaning product than a glass that’s supposed to induce pleasure. A universal glass, however, hints at a whole world of wine just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.
“For wine lovers who savor every sip, the wine glass is crucial,” says Kurt Josef Zalto, the designer behind Josephinenhütte and formerly of the Zalto glassware company. “It's more than a container; it's a vessel that can highlight or hide the true quality of a wine.”
Elements of a Universal Glass
Gabriel-Glas was created by wine writer René Gabriel, who had a bit of a Goldilocks complex with other glasses—nothing was quite right. A good glass actually needs to do several things. “Wines like to have a vessel that amplifies and promotes their aromatics,” says Jonah Beer, Principal & CEO of Gabriel-Glas North America. “It should soften the impact of acid and demure the presence of alcohol." To achieve all of this in a single glass, several elements of the design need to be considered.
Bowl
The starting point for any glassmaker is the bowl. According to Beer, you don’t want it to be too large, because pollutant esters can get into the wine and alter aromas. But there should be enough surface space to get a good swirl going, an action that releases aromatic compounds.
The bowl is where you’ll see the biggest difference in design. Gabriel-Glas has what Beer calls a “convex curve,” which is a little hump the wine flows over so it spreads more broadly across the palate. Meanwhile, Josephinhutte displays a bulge at the base, reined in by a cinched waist, as if there were an invisible belt around it. It’s meant to allow more oxygen into the wine as it is swirled.
Most bowls have straight sides, which offer more precise aromas and flavors when the glass is tilted towards the mouth. All are slightly tapered and grow narrower closer to the mouth. Regardless of what the designer deems the best design, the ultimate goal is to have the wine hit the palate at an angle that enhances fruit and softens tannins and alcohol.
Aperture
The width of the glass opening is all about maximizing aromatics. Too wide, and the scent dissipates. Too narrow, and you can’t get your nose well enough into the glass to even take a proper whiff. The tapered sides concentrate the aromas as they move upward.
Stem
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to a stem, except one: it’s essential. Holding the bowl of a glass in your hand warms the wine and alters its properties, so the less direct contact with the wine, the better. A stem is also conducive to getting your swirl on.
When fine tableware designer Richard Brendon wanted to expand into wine glasses due to customer demand, he connected with renowned wine critic and writer Jancis Robinson. She laid down a tough mandate: she only wanted one glass. One. Perfect. Glass. They designed their stem shorter than others in order to accommodate a range of dishwashers (more on that in a minute).
All glassware producers here note there are no connective joints between the stem and the bowl—it’s all a single piece of glass—which ostensibly means less breakage.
Base
A good base is proportionate to the bowl. “When you swirl the glass, it's incredibly well balanced,” says Brendon, who designed the base of the Jancis glass to have equal circumference to the bowl. “It feels really, really good in your hand, whereas there are other wine glasses out there that feel very top-heavy.”
Glass Thickness
This is probably the most delightful—and terrifying component—of a glass. Any self-identified klutz will cower in the presence of a very lightweight vessel but the goal is to make the glass simply disappear. “The idea was that the glass, while nudging the wine to open up, gets out of the way so that nothing stands between you and the wine,” says Emily Schindler of The Manufactury and Winemongers, the US importer of Zalto.
Mouth-blown glasses achieve this featherweight lightness, and the heartbeat of this artisan industry resides in Austria. But it’s a dying art form, and the price of handcrafted glasses is understandably higher.
Innovations in machine-blown glassware get closer to the ideal; Gabriel-Glas offers both machine-blown and mouth-blown versions of its signature shape. The former is noticeably heavier, but its sturdiness may soothe nervous souls.
All producers work with lead-free material. Lead softens glass and makes it more malleable, which leads to breakage.
Dishwasher Safe
All producers tout their glasses to be dishwasher safe. As Robinson succinctly put it, life’s too short to be washing dishes by hand. But pragmatically, there’s a larger margin of human error than a machine. And as all the glasses target both consumers and restaurants, the drinkware needs to work with high-volume kitchen equipment.
So, Can a Universal Do It All?
The short answer is: maybe.
Maria Rust owns SommTime wine bar in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her constantly rotating by-the-glass offerings and broad bottle selections attract both industry folks as well as neighborhood regulars. Since opening in 2016, she’s moved away from an array of glassware shapes to a single universal glass, no matter what the pour.
“When we opened, I wanted to give a glass for each style of wine,” she says. “Because that's what I had been doing my whole career. “ But after experiencing a universal glass at a sommelier-owned and led restaurant, she made the switch and calls herself a convert to the one-glass camp. From an operational standpoint, service goes much smoother without the fuss of multiple shapes, especially since the universal does justice to her wine selections.
In a fine-dining scenario, however, the stakes might change. Glasvin, which has a sizable restaurant clientele, carries five shapes total: a white, a universal, a Burgundy, a Bordeaux, and a Champagne. “Different wines taste differently in different glasses,” says founder David Kong. Full stop.
“Going to a restaurant, you have the right glass for the exact right wine and the exact right wine for the exact right food,” says Kong. “And that's also why you pay three times, four times markup versus just drinking at home.” Customers spending a lot on a bottle want an optimal glass. It is a ritual. It’s ingrained in white tablecloth culture.
But for home use, I’m Team Universal. The best way to really learn about wine is through regular tasting, and a universal glass provides consistency.
Hinterleitner says what he likes about the straight sides, as opposed to curved shape as one might find in a Bordeaux or Pinot Noir glass, is that they amplify everything, flaws included. As much as we want wine to be delicious, it helps to learn what imperfections taste like in your wine journey.
We bandy around the term “affordable luxury,” but it makes sense when talking about a good universal glass. I’m more present as I feel the tilting pressure from swirling. I slow down and enjoy my wine more.
And at the end of the day, when laptops close and corks come out, it’s all about enjoyment. “A glass’s role is like a great sound system,” says Beer. “All it has to do is amplify and add fidelity to the music that you're listening to. We're not here to distort it. We're not here to change it. The glass should disappear, and the wine is exactly as the vineyard and the winemaker intended.”
What are your thoughts on glassware? Drop them in the comments below!