Warm wine or red wine disaster?
It would be hard to find a house without a set of wine glasses. They are a simple and elegant design that defines the evolution of wine making and traditions. There are different bowl shapes for the varied array of wine, some help to aerate and others to enhance the flavours of the wine.
Most wine glasses are made of glass and have three parts; the bowl, the stem and the foot. The combination of it all being glass creates a fragile item.
The stem of the wine glass introduces another problem as it elevates the centre of gravity making the wine glass less stable without having anything even in it. How often does a good dinner party end with a smashed wine glass. The simple design of the wine glass may be too simple as it is always the glass that seems to be smashed. Guests shouldn’t have to be tip toeing around the wine glasses in the room, too scared to move. Is the easiest solution to take the stem out of the equation? Bam! Problem fixed.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy because as wines have evolved so has the idea of how to drink them, we hold the wine glass by the stem to not heat the wine, as wine is served at below room temperature or chilled. Holding the wine glass without a stem would heat up the wine in the glass due to our body heat. For that reason, the stem is a good idea and it also allows people to easily swirl their wine to aerate and smell the aromas. The stem also helps to demonstrate Ron Mace’s sixth principle of low physical effort for the user. So why do we not go back to the medieval way of a metal stem and foot for strength and stability with the glass bowl. The idea seems ludicrous as the modern wine glass looks aesthetically pleasing. Maybe the choice just has to be yours. Warm wine or red wine disaster?
Image 1: https://www.christopher-torrevieja.com/how-do-restaurants-clean-up-those-red-wine-spills/ Image 2: Squarespace.com
