Meet the Aria Short Stem Wine Glass

In the world of wine glasses, each vessel is truly a matter of taste just like the bottles that are poured into them. Some swear by their universals; others wouldn’t dare drink their Burgundy from anything but a varietal-specific. Meanwhile, there’s an ever-expanding list of styles that each coax out different characteristics from wines.

Here at Wine Enthusiast, the same is true for our tasting department. Each of our writers-at-large has their own arsenal of glassware in their personal stashes. But when it comes to their blind tastings, they all use the exact same high-quality glass in order to impart consistency to the process.

Recently, the team changed its official glass to the Aria Short Stem Universal Glass.

“Glassware is a very personal thing,” says Wine Enthusiast Tasting Director Anna-Christina Cabrales. “And for me, I just want to make sure that we’re taking every opportunity to maximize our experiences with the wines.”

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The Anatomy of the Aria Short Stem Universal Glass

The journey to redesign the official glass of the Wine Enthusiast tasting department began soon after Cabrales joined as tasting director. She noticed that among the various glasses she tried, she was able to get to the heart of a wine more effectively with the Aria Universal glass, which has been part of Wine Enthusiast’s glassware shop since June 2023.

When Wine Enthusiast develops its products, it takes a user-centered approach, incorporating feedback from customers, friends, fans and its community of fellow wine lovers.

The Aria has a tall, wide and round bowl with a steep taper. These details help to trap aroma molecules in the glass: The more distance between the nose and the wine, the more molecules can collect. It also has a slightly wider base, giving the glass more stability when held and more balance when swirled. Meanwhile, the razor-thin edge helps deliver wine to the palate more directly.

“It feels like there’s nothing between you and the wine; it’s just your experience with the wine,” Cabrales says. “I can sense a lot of nuance right away.”

While Cabrales enjoyed the shape and weight of the Aria Universal, the day-to-day practicalities of tasting wine required a slight adaptation on the stem. The fact that the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel blind tastes and rates over 25,000 wines per year means that a single glass is a frequent flier in the dishwasher. So, she and the Wine Enthusiast team shortened the stem to three inches in order to make it more durable and so it could fit into a standard rack more comfortably.

How to Use the Aria Short-Stemmed Universal Glass

As a universal glass, it’s suitable for all styles of wine, including sparklers. Its dishwasher-friendly design makes it ideal for everyday use.

While Cabrales pulls out her prized Zaltos for certain friends who can be trusted not to break a glass, she’s reaching for Aria tasting glass a lot more when she entertains since it handles wines so well and she worries less about snapping a stem. And at $30 each, even if one breaks it’s not as painful as losing an $80 Zalto.

“Everyone knows that I have an ocean of glassware—I usually serve at least three wine glasses plus a water glass—but now I think I would just do like the Aria and a water glass and call it a day,” Cabrales says.