Leave Champagne Flutes Alone!
Wine industry professionals, at the end of the day, are just highly experienced and overeducated wine nerds.
Like many obsessives in other realms of interest or study, us cork dorks have a penchant for expounding upon the “rules” of how to optimally enjoy wine. It’s a character flaw, sure, but one that’s undoubtedly useful to the general public from time to time.
Yet there’s a destructive side to those who take the explanatory dos and don’ts of wine service too far. This resulting—and frustratingly universal—wine snob caricature continues to haunt the industry. Given the current global contraction for the international wine trade, the uppity aspect of wine education has become a cultural turn-off detrimental to the livelihood of countless winegrowers worldwide.
One recent bright spot, though, has been bubbly. Throughout the rough patch, sparkling wine has continued to gain in both popularity and market share.
But ever eager to look yet another gift horse in the mouth, too many members of the wine cognoscenti have recently been shaming that most iconic of bubbly glasses: the Champagne flute.
This new favorite buzzkill pet of the wine fun-police has repeatedly been parroted by the general media. Publications like Forbes, The Telegraph, and the New York Post have piled on, distilling what should be a more nuanced conversation down to “You’ve been pouring Champagne wrong.”
So where does that leave us?
The Frustration With Flutes
A lot of the backlash against tall, skinny glassware is rooted in understandable grievances.
Anna-Christina Cabrales, Wine Enthusiast’s tasting director and reviewer for Champagne, brings up aromas.
“Oftentimes, I find that with some shapes, the florality is missing,“ she explains. “When I work with the Wine Enthusiast commerce team, we try different shapes of bowls. We evaluate each bowl to see which has the best chromatography, if you will. The flute doesn’t give us that aromatic complexity.”
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Gary Westby, the longtime Champagne buyer for California’s K&L Wine Merchants, agrees with a suboptimal view of flutes for official purposes. “The two big disadvantages of the flute are not enough room to really get your nose in it, and the wine going down a narrow band on your palate,” he says. “When I taste professionally, I just use our standard, all-purpose, titanium-reinforced Chianti glasses.” Coupe glasses are another trending vessel for bubbles.
But while not providing sufficient space for fine bubbly to fully spread its aromatic wings might be a ticketable infraction—maybe even a misdemeanor when talking Cristal or Krug—it’s far from a felony. Cabrales and Westby are both more than happy to offer options, flutes included, in social settings. “I’ll always ask what glass they want before I serve bubbly,” Cabrales says. “Maybe I’ll bring two different shapes, pour a sample, and see what they prefer.”
In a world of declining market share for wine, the flute deserves some love—and some serious economic credit—for its visually vivacious appeal.
The Little Black Dress of Wine Glasses
Despite its drawbacks, let’s face it: Flutes are just sexy.
They lend a cheerful, sophisticated vibe to social events. “You also feast with your eyes,” Westby says. He maintains a broad assortment of different Champagne glasses for hosting, and he isn’t afraid of his flutes. “I have eight of the mouth-blown Champagne flutes from Riedel,” he says. “Anytime I have a big gathering at my house, I like to bust them out.”
Another major factor in bubbly’s market resilience is that sparkling wine positively pops on social media. With that long column of elegant effervescence, no vessel gives fizz more Instagrammable aesthetics than the flute.
“They look spectacular,” says James Simpson, managing director of the Pol Roger Portfolio and chairman of the Champagne Agents Association. He’s quick to point out that not all flutes are created equal, though. “We’re still plagued by those ghastly catering flutes floating around,” he says. “They’re thick as all hell.”
Admittedly—with their slender profile—flutes are tough to wash properly, and for Westby, cleanliness is a non-negotiable for wine service. “When asked what’s my favorite glass to drink Champagne out of, I answer that it’s a clean one,” he says. “I really mean it.”
But assuming the vessel is clean, it’s all about enjoying bubbly when, where, and however one pleases, rules be damned. “As long as they’re buying the bloody stuff, the consumer should drink it out of whatever they want,” Simpson concludes.
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To that end, on a recent trip to Wine Enthusiast headquarters just north of NYC, Cabrales and I were sipping elite-tier Champagne on the train after a long day. Not from flutes or other wine glasses, mind you, but from that most humble, MacGyver-tastic of drinking vessels: the plastic Solo cup.
Feel free to judge, but hey, they were clean, and it was what we had to work with. And guess what? It was still fabulous.
More Glassware Coverage
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- Bartenders and home cocktail makers have been falling back in love with the tiny cordial glass.
- Speaking of tiny: Small cocktails are having a big moment.
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