Wine has an international appeal. Every continent on earth has embraced it and sampled it from glass cups ever since they came about. The question is however, why do we use glass? Why not from a mug, wooden goblet or plastic cup? Sadly, there is no definitive answer for this. You will find in fact a number of different alternative materials used in various countries that wine is drunk from. For example in Japan, wine is drunk from a ceramic vase-shaped container and in Thailand, wooden cups are often used. However, the overriding choice of tableware drinking vessel, wherever you go, is glass. As it happens this is not down to glass being particularly excellent, rather the alternatives being really just not that suitable. Let take a look at them shall we.
Wood. Wine is indeed drunk from wooden vessels as highlighted previously, although it doesn’t come without some big downsides. First off, the wood often gets stained in you choose to drink red wine from it. Even the less porous harder woods fall victim to this fate before long. Secondly, there is the issue of rotting, which frequency happens when wood gets wet for a long time. So after each use, time would have to be spent drying it out and removing any moisture.
Metal. If you have ever drunk wine from a metal cup you will know it’s not the best experience ever. Metals have a large number of things called ions, and when most wines come into contact with it ‘displacement’ can happen. This means that ions can be released into the wine when it is in the vessel and these result in an altered taste. This is why you often pick up metallic notes when drink from this type of cup. Also, because of its very heat-conductive qualities, almost any other material would keep the wine cooler when you’re holding it
Ceramic. Like glass, ceramic is non porous, does not release any of its qualities into the wine, and can be easily cleaned with a glass cloth. For these reasons it utilised an an alternative, however it will never be as popular as glass due to one elemental floor – you can’t see through it. Part of the joy of drinking a nice wine is swirling it around the glass examining its colours and textures. Since glass was first developed, we have had the very simple and instinctive desire for this.
