In The Drinks Business’ post Wine Glass Best for Champagne, Says Pernod the notion of a flute and coupe is put to the challenge. Perhaps the best glass for sparkling wine is a white wine glass. This made me recall the glasses we used while in the Penedés Cava region of Catalonia and Barcelona a week ago.

We only had cava in a coupe once. We were wondering the streets of Barcelona and discovered Can Paixano, a crowded restaurant with standing room only. The restaurant serves cavas, sandwiches and tapas. We sampled two cavas, a brut nature and a demi-sec, both served in coupes to the very top. While in the Penedés wine region tasting some of the 50 Great Cavas, we did not have any cavas served in coupes. The cavas were either served in flutes or white wine glasses. This was about even with perhaps a slight edge to the flutes.

Coupes and flutes are used to serve cavas.

In the Penedés region of Catalonia, Spain, cavas are served in white wine glasses and flutes.

The article and our experience made me think that I should conduct some research to discover if the glasses do make a difference. At the moment, I have a nice stock of cavas, and have a couple coupes, several flutes and several white wine glasses. Some question that I am interesting in collecting data include:

Which glass keeps the bubbles longer?
Which glass keeps the cava the coldest for the longest period?
Which glass does a better job identifying the aromas?
Is the taste different between the glasses?

One thing about wine research is there is always an excitement in conducting it. I’ll let you know my findings.

Cheers,
Terry