I went down a rabbit hole a few weeks ago about what are the best champagne glasses. Apparently the popular flute style glasses are now a big no-no! I think it’s mostly because you can’t get the full aromatics of the champagne from the small opening in the flute. It seems most of the hard-core champagne drinkers go with either a tulip/champagne glass or just a normal white wine glass. I joined a few champagne groups on Facebook and if you post a picture of Dom/Krug in a flute, the very first comment will be, “Awww anything but a flute” and usually the OP responds with, “Well that’s all they had.”
I tried an expensive champagne in all 3 types – a flute, a tulip, and a white wine glass. If you love the effervescence, then the flute is the best since it holds the bubbles better. However I guess once you start becoming a champagne snob, you’ll want to sniff the aromatics like it’s a red/white. I thought the tulip and the white wine glasses were similar although the tulip held the bubbles slightly longer. I’m still in the “give me bubbles over sniff” phase in drinking champagne, but I am beginning to sniff the champagnes more since I am dabbling in the big boys (Krug, La Grande Dame, Ace of Spades, etc.) Thus, I mainly am drinking the champagne in tulip glasses these days. I think the white wine glass is too hard core for me right now. I think once you start sniffing it and saying things like “it’s showing beautifully, offering up aromas of tart red berries and plums mingled with notions of warm biscuits, dried fruits, flowers and orange zest. Medium to full-bodied, taut and incisive, with terrific concentration, racy acids and a long, penetrating finish, it’s an intensely flavored, electric wine,” then that’s probably when you should move to the white wine glass.
I’ll have a bigger blog post later on which champagnes I’m enjoying, but for now I just wanted to inform you that flutes are OUT! At the end of the day, don’t let other people tell you how to drink your champagne. If you likes flutes, want to chug it, in a Solo cup, then you do you.
The more stylish trend currently are coupe’s, especially vintage or art deco style. Been out of favor for the past 30+ years, but they are making a huge comeback at the high end.
I don’t know about making a ‘huge’ comeback. Folks in the champage groups kind of poke fun at them in a joking way, but I don’t think anyone’s going to constantly pick a coupe over a tulip/white wine glass. I think it’d be fun once in a while in a Great Gatsby kind of way, but the bubbles would die so quick in them. I mean if you’re also drinking 1980’s champagne that already has few bubbles, then it may make sense or you’re just not into the effervescent, sure.