You smell your wine before you drink it. But did you know that you should also smell your wine glass? These glasses are designed to enhance our wine-drinking experience. A big bowl gives us space to swirl the wine and release its bouquet of aromas. A long stem prevents the heat from our hands from warming up the wine. A narrow rim helps to concentrate the aromas and direct the wine to specific areas of your tongue. However, smelly, scratched, or tainted glasses can compromise benefits and spoil your wine-drinking experience.
Now many of you will think that you are doing a great job of caring for your wine glasses. You washed, dried and polished them, before putting them away in a cabinet. They are ready for service. But before you pour wine into a glass that has been sitting in a cabinet for days, weeks or months, just smell it.
Smell Your Wine Glass Before You Use It
If you put your delicious and delicate wine in a smelly glass, you are going to ruin its aromas and flavours. While dust will give it a funky texture and reduce its clarity, a wooden or cardboard-like smell will tamper with the wine’s original set of aromas. You could smell oak barrel in your wine, only to realise later that it was aged in a steel vat. You might mistakenly perceive your wine as spoiled due to a wet cardboard smell caused by your wine glass.
Believe it or not, the wine glasses that you’ve kept in glass cabinets or wooden cupboards are actually magnets for all kinds of smells. They can gather dust or accumulate the smell of turpentine, wood or cardboard from long-term storage. But you can also be responsible for smelly wine glasses. Many people wash their wine glasses and hastily put them away in the cupboard, without drying them properly. This gives them a stale or stagnant-water smell. Even if you have cleaned your glasses in a dishwasher, it is important to air them before you put them in the cupboard.
Another mistake you should avoid making is using a scented dishwashing soap to clean the glasses. Though your soap ensures clean glasses, it can leave a lingering strong scent for days or even weeks. To avoid this, you should either use unscented dishwashing soap or rinse your glasses thoroughly after you wash them.
How To Get Rid Of The Smell In Your Wine Glass
Always smell your wine glass before pouring your wine into it. If it isn’t odourless, you need to give it a thorough rinse. The right way to do that is to pour a bit of water into the glass and give it a quick swirl and then drain it. This will wash away all the dustiness and residual smells from your glass. You don’t even need to wipe the glass dry, just make sure there isn’t any residual water in it which might dilute your wine.
Dive into the world of enhancing your wine experience with @SonalHolland_masterofwine on Instagram.
Watch Now: Discover the Scent of Wine Glasses!
