Flute, coupe, tulip or wine glass? Which is best to drink champagne?
For the longest time we have been drinking bubbly out of champagne flutes, but it seems we haven’t been getting the best out of the bubbles because of it. This is why more attention is being paid to which glass is best.
The coupe’s shape makes your champagne lose its bubbles fast, while the flute will trap in the aromas and lead to you missing out on the scents and flavours of the champagne.
The two leading choices are wine and tulip glasses.
Marketing manager at Moët Hennessy, Michael Ellingworth, said: “I prefer to drink champagne from a wine glass. One must remember that champagne is, in fact, a wine, and the shape of a wine glass allows for the champagne to breath, and provides a far more pleasurable experience than from a traditional champagne flute, which is very narrow at the rim.”
Lifestyle manager at Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouët, Hussain van Roos, prefers his bubbly in a tulip glass. “There’s still use of the classic coupe and the traditional flutes, however, to truly experience and enjoy what champagne has to offer. I recommend tulip glasses because they’re tall enough to allow the bubbles and aromas to develop to their fullest.”
But there are still those who do think the flute also works just as well as it has, for decades, like Amine Ghanem, Oenologist Wine Quality Manager for Moët & Chandon.
At the Champagne Day celebrations in Durban at the Beverly Hills Hotel, we asked him which glass was best.
"To enjoy champagne, you can do it in two ways. In a flute, to enjoy the train of bubbles, the freshness and the fruitiness of the champagne. If you want to enjoy champagne as a wine, a structered and rich wine, go with a white wine glass. Because wine and and champagne need space to fully express itself and since champagne is a wine, we can enjoy it that way too."
Watch his response, below: