Wine Food Pairing …. STOP…someone stole the stem off my wine glass!

STOP….nobody move! The stem is missing off my wine glass! Wasn't it here just a couple of days ago?


The latest craze or fashion if you will is the stemless wine glass. The Stemless wine glass is catching on with more and more consumers in the US trendiest restaurants, thanks to the wine industry efforts to demystify wine or the glass companies attempt to sell more stemware or in this case stemless ware! I guess it seems a bit more "earthy" to swirl your favorite wine in a tumbler versus holding a goblet by the stem. In Europe, for years, they've served wine in various shaped receptacles….usually what ever is handy and it is totally accepted. Of course if the white linen comes out so does the formal stemmed glass.


All I have to say about this new trend is FINGERPRINTS….no not to search for the culprit that stole the stem off my glass, but the ones that I leave on my glass if I am eating fried chicken with my White Zin! I enjoy looking at the colors of my swirling wine not my smudged digit marks and it is also a lot of fun to delicately hold the perfect stem and get a full twirl going! OK, perhaps I am getting a bit carried away, but what about TEMPERATURE? As I sit with my hot little hands wrapped around a tumbler, won't my chilled wine get a bit, well, warm?


Some wine experts argue that the stemless ware is the best of both worlds. They feel that the tumbler style glass allows you to swirl the wine and control its flow onto your palette. In addition, the glasses will fit nicely into the dishwasher which is indeed a plus! Glassware companies are now making the tumbler type glass in different shapes to accommodate the type of wine you are drinking, be it a big red or a delicate white.


I know as far as wine food pairing goes that I can be flexible and come up with the casual pairing that would work just right for the trendy new stemless ware. I can see myself sitting at the patio table, being served a medium rare steak, hot off the grill and a large bowled tumbler of Cabernet Sauvignon. YUM! I'm making myself hungry!


So, perhaps its goodbye to my formal stemmed red wine glasses in my cabinet. Wine food pairing has stepped into the next generation! CHEERS!

Denise Clarke has been passionate about Wine Food Pairing for years.....