Liquor Glassware Types

Standard Wine Glass

Aroma is one of the most important elements with wine, so the wine glass should have a large opening. There are different size wine glasses. Basic rule of thumb: broader openings for reds, narrower for whites. That should get you through most situations just fine.

Tumbler Glass

This is often considered an all-purpose glass. That wine comes in temperature controlled. Technically, a tumbler is any flat-bottomed glass. The specific glass shown here, though, is wide enough for your nose to take in the aromatics of your drink, it's just not curved around to trap in the vapors like a standard wine glass.

Martini Glass

The cone shape serves to help maintain temperature, keep the ingredients pushed together (olives, spirits of different specific gravities, etc.), and it provides a nice large surface area for the aroma, since you're typically drinking gin (or a Manhattan) and aroma is 90 percent of flavor.

Flute

Mainly for champagne and other sparkling wines, the goal is to make the bubble last for as long as possible. There's often a bead etched at the bottom in an attempt to give the bubbles a single point of nucleation. Aroma isn't as important with these wines as they would be a red wine, so the opening is smaller in an attempt to minimize the exposure to air.

Rocks Glass

The glass can accommodate large cubes of ice and they're still plenty of room to stir within the glass. It's also got a nice big opening so you can really smell the aromatics in your whisky.

Dessert Wine Glass

These guys are petite, because the dessert wine is typically very sweet and you don't want a lot of it. Again, it's stemware to keep the temperature controlled. It has a smaller opening because sweetness is perceived more on the tongue than in the nose, so aroma isn't as important.

Grappa Glass

Small, bulb shape bottom are very good at maintaining temperature. From there it flares upward to give you a little bit of that aroma.