What is the Best Champagne Glass?
This is a question that many people, from beginners to wine connoisseurs, have been asking themselves for years. And over this span of time, the answer has changed quite a bit.
From the traditional champagne flute to the coupé glass, and now the traditional wine glass has fallen into favor.
But I think the answer really depends on the type of champagne that you are drinking.
That is because different champagne glasses will accentuate different parts of each champagne.
Understanding How the Glass Affects the Champagne
Aroma
They say that 80% of taste is actually smell. This is why there are so many different variations of glassware for every kind of drink on the market.
Everyone is constantly refining the shape to optimize the aroma sent up from the liquid inside.
Champagne has a special relationship with aroma because the bubbles coming from the champagne will actually rise to the top, pop, and send particles of champagne straight into the drinker’s nose.
Delivering the smell in a way that most other wines never will.
However, this rapid delivery system does not mean that the glass plays a less important role when it comes to champagne. The proper glass still plays a major role in how the champagne will be received.
Bubbles
As we know, the role of the bubbles in champagne is an important one.
They come up from the bottom of the glass, collecting all of the different tastes and aromas from the entirety of the champagne and then pops, sending those aromas up into the air.
As the bubbles rise, they also carry some liquid up with them.
As this liquid from the bottom is pulled to the top, it allows fresh aroma and flavors to constantly be pulled to the top while the champagne at the top falls back down.
This consistent circulation is perfect for the drinker because they always receive fresh smells and flavors as they drink.
The champagne glass shape will dictate how fast the bubbles rise and how complex they are when they get to the top.
A thinner glass will produce more rapidly rising bubbles. In contrast, a wide glass, like a coupé glass, will have slower rising bubbles.
This allows them to become more complex as they rise to the top because they come into contact with more champagne along the way.
These slower bubbles will deliver more complexity in their aroma and a better experience for those drinking older, more full-bodied champagnes.
Temperature
The shape of the glass will also dictate the temperature. Champagne should be served at very specific temperatures, and any variation will also vary the aroma and taste profile.
Stemless champagne glasses will force the drinker to hold the glass from the bowl.
This will cause the champagne to warm as the heat from your hand is transferred into the glass.
Because of this, any stemmed champagne glass will be preferred over a stemless glass.
The stem allows the drinker to keep fingerprints off of the bowl and to keep the champagne at its optimal temperature for longer; since you won’t have to worry about your hand warming up the wine.
The Traditional Champagne Flute
The traditional champagne flute is a tall thin glass that has become synonymous with champagne.
Pros
It actually has a small rough patch scoured into the bottom of the bowl right above the stem. This is the perfect spot for bubbles to form from the champagne.
Because of this, with a nice champagne flute, you will often nice a perfect stream of bubbles rising from the bottom center of the glass.
If the glass is new and clean, this should be the only place where the bubbles rise. This gives a beautiful aesthetic to any champagne.
This thinness of the champagne flute also slows down bubble production, so the bubbles will continue to rise for longer than if it were poured into a wider glass.
Cons
The thin profile of the glass doesn’t lend itself to creating a full-bodied aroma. And since smell plays such a big role in the champagne’s taste, you often won’t be able to distinguish some of the more subtle flavors.
Also, since the glass is so thin, it is often filled to the top, which means that any aroma produced is almost immediately taken away by the wind.
When You Should Use a Champagne Flute
The traditional champagne flute is good for celebrations. The slim profile means that you are unlikely to spill even with a lot of movement like dancing.
It is also the best shape for bubble preservation and presentation. And as for what champagnes a flute glass would pair well with.
We recommend young or bone dry champagnes only.
Best Champagne Flute
This is the Schott Zwiesel Tritan Crystal Champagne Flute. Tritan Crystal is Schott Zwiesel’s patented non-lead crystal.
Instead of lead, they infuse the glass with titanium oxide and zirconium oxide.
This gives these champagne flutes the same clarity and ring of classic leaded crystal while being much more durable.
Although they are thin, these glasses can handle drops or spills without a problem. Their durability also makes them dishwasher safe.
The center of the glass right above the stem is laser etched. Providing a steady stream of bubbles rising from the center of the glass. This also helps preserve the bubbles so that they last longer.
Premium Champagne Flute
The Riedel Sommeliers Vintage Champagne Glass is the epitome of elegance. The sommeliers series by Riedel was created in 1973 with sommeliers from around the world.
They gathered intending to create the perfect wine glass for every type of grape. That is exactly what they went on to do.
These are handcrafted fine crystal champagne glasses. It is scoured in the center to promote rising bubbles. And although these are thin hand made crystal, they are still dishwasher safe.
Budget Champagne Flute
While they are perfect for someone on a budget, these beautiful champagne glasses still have an elegant design and lightweight feel. This is the RCR Opera Crystal Champagne Glass.
These glasses are made from lead-free crystal. They have a beautiful engraving, and they come in a set of six.
So you’ll have enough glasses so that everyone can enjoy a glass together.
These champagne flutes are made in Italy and are completely dishwasher safe.
And if you love the design, they have a whole host of matching glasses from highballs to lowballs and even wine decanters—all with equally amazing prices.
The Tulip Glass
The tulip glass is not as well known as the traditional champagne flute, but its wider “tulip” shape actually fixes some of the champagne flutes’ biggest drawbacks.
Pros
This glass still has a thinner profile like the champagne flute giving it good bubble preservation and presentation.
But the wider tulip shape allows more of the aroma to be trapped inside of the glass.
This buildup of aroma makes it so as you go to take a sip, you get a strong complex smell, allowing you to really differentiate the wine’s complexity and intricacies.
Cons
While the tulip glass is much better than the flute at presenting the aroma of a good champagne, it is still not the best glass to use if you are tasting a really old or full-bodied wine; still, it does collect some aroma.
When You Should Use a Tulip Glass
Because of its slim profile, a tulip glass is still a great glass to use at parties. It allows the drinker to walk around and dance without the worry of spilling. But because it is slightly wider and therefore better at presenting aromas.
We recommend a standard tulip glass for something like a Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, or a Rose, as well as any slightly more aromatic or fruity sparkling wines.
Tulip vs. Wide Tulip Glasses
A wide tulip glass is just a slighter wider version of the regular tulip glass. Because of this wider bowl, it is able to collect some of the more complex aromas of well-aged champagne.
Wide tulip glasses should be used when the champagne is more aromatic, complex, or aged.
Best Tulip Glass
These are the Toby Global Tulip Champagne Glasses.
They are extremely thin, modern, and stylish glasses. The tulip champagne glasses come in a set of 4.
They are hand blown with 100% lead-free crystal. This crystal offers premium clarity and a lightweight feel in your hand.
Toby Global also offers a money-back guarantee, so if for any reason you’re not satisfied, you can return them for a full refund.
Best Wide Tulip Glass
This is the Schott Zwiesel Tritan Crystal Glass Finesse Stemware Collection Champagne Flute. A rather long name but an exceptional tulip glass.
These glasses are made from patented glass that, instead of lead, uses titanium and zirconium oxide.
This gives the same clarity, refractive index, and sound profile as traditional crystal but makes the glass much stronger.
These glasses easily handle small drops, spills and are completely dishwasher safe. The strong, non-porous glass will never etch, cloud, or discolor.
These beautiful glasses have a seamless design where the bowl tapered beautifully and seamlessly into the stem.
The stem then carries that same seamless flow down into the foot of the glass. The rim is extremely thin so that it never interferes with how you experience your champagne.
And six laser-cut holes in the bottom of the glass give you that perfect pillar of champagne bubbles in every glass.
Premium Tulip Glass
The perfect premium tulip glass is the Riedel Performance Champagne Glass.
This glass was specifically made to allow the complex aromas from the champagne to grow and intensify.
The glasses are made from machine-blown crystal, and within the bottle of the glass is a rough patch that Riedel refers to as the “sparkle point.”
This is where bubbles will begin as they travel to the surface of your champagne.
A special feature of Riedel’s performance series is the optic impact.
As seen in the image above, the way the top of the glass catches light not only ads a visual appeal but is built this way for maximum surface area. Giving the champagne more room to grow its aroma.
Although they are fragile, these wide tulip champagne glasses remain completely dishwasher safe.
The Coupé Glass
The coupé glass is indicative of the 1950s. It is known for its wide shallow bowl. This was the traditional champagne glass at the time and, as such, is considered a more vintage style.
Pros
People loved the coupé glass because it disperses bubbles much more quickly than a champagne flute. This means that it won’t produce bubbles for as long, but it gives the champagne a much softer and fruitier taste.
Cons
The wide shallow bowl means that the glass does not preserve the bubbles very well.
And because the glass’s bottom is not traditionally scoured, the bubbles are produced from all over, giving a very different appearance than the champagne flute or tulip glass.
The wide bowl also means that the glass doesn’t collect any aroma. As the bubbles pop, spitting champagne particles and aroma into the air, they are immediately taken away by the wind.
This is part of how it softens a glass of champagne, but it also means that you will not be able to smell any of the subtler nuanced aromas.
When You Should Use a Coupé Glass
A coupé glass would not be an ideal choice for parties where a lot of dancing is involved as these glasses are very prone to spilling.
They are a great choice for a vintage style, and they pair well with any sweet sparkling wines.
Best Coupé Glass
Coupé champagne glasses are a vintage classic. And nothing brings back 1950’s nostalgia like these Libbey Paneled Coupe Cocktail Glasses.
These are made from lead-free glass, and the bowl is molded with ribbed lines that resemble 3-dimensional paneled glass.
This gives a trend-forward look as well as projecting stunning optics as light passes through the glass.
The thin stem gives a great lightweight feel in your hand while remaining durable and completely dishwasher safe.
Premium Coupé Glass
The Barski Champagne Saucer is the epitome of high-end glassware. The coupé glasses are hand made in Poland and bottom dipped in 20K gold.
They feature an ultra-thin rim and bowl that sits seamlessly upon another extremely thin stem.
The pulled stem flows straight into the foot, and the whole coupé glass screams elegance.
These glasses are not tough like their competitors, and they are hand wash only. But a little bit more work is worth having these incredible glasses that will bring any special occasion to the next level.
Budget Coupé Glass
The Libbey Signature Greenwich Coupe Cocktail Glasses has many of the same features that make its competitors so nice, but it is offered at a much more affordable price.
This glass is made with their patented clear fire glass, which is lead-free and creates a brilliant crystal clear glass that is extremely strong.
This strength allows the coupé glass to be 100% dishwasher safe. These glasses also feature a completely seamless design from bowl to foot. These glasses are simple, elegant, and affordable!
The Champagne Wine Glass
The traditional wine glass has become the new go-to for champagne connoisseurs from all over the world.
Because of their shape, wine glasses work well to collect aroma and direct it into the drinker’s nose.
The “sweet spot” is often located perfectly in the center of the rim where your nose enters the glass while sipping.
The shape that makes these glasses so perfect for wine also make these a great glass to showcase champagne.
Pros
The wine glass is the optimal shape with a wide base for collecting complex aromas while having enough space above the champagne for those aromas to collect before reaching the nose.
This allows the drinker to easily identify subtle, complex flavors and smells.
Cons
Drinking champagne out of a wine glass doesn’t give me the same celebratory feeling that I get when drinking gout of a traditional champagne glass.
I know that drinking any alcoholic beverage should be about maximizing the experience for the drinker. But I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something when I drink my champagne out of a wine glass.
When You Should Use A Wine Glass
You should drink champagne out of a wine glass any time you are truly trying to enjoy all of the nuances and complexities of a well-aged or full-bodied sparkling wine.
Best Wine Glass for Champagne
When champagne is well-aged or full-bodied and needs to be enjoyed fully by every sensory organ you have, it needs to be poured into a white wine glass.
We recommend the Spiegelau Salute White Wine Glasses.
These are beautiful lead-free crystal wine glasses. They feature a thin laser-cut rim. The stem is mounted to the bowl and the foot in a seamless fashion.
They are crystal clear, and they are elegant. But most of all, they perfectly express all of the complex aromas of your champagne.
The large bowl allows the bubbles to come up slowly, collecting tons of fresh aromas as they do. Then that aroma begins to intensify inside of the bowl.
As it travels up to the rim, it is pushed together at the narrow rim, further intensifying the more subtle smells and delivering them straight into your nose.
These glasses are the ultimate way to truly enjoy your next bottle of expensive champagne.
Premium Wine Glass for Champagne
The premium pick for a champagne wine glass has brought us back to Riedel as it often does.
The Riedel Sommeliers Riesling Grand Cru Wine Glass is a fan favorite. These are fine crystal wine glasses that are hand made in Europe.
They feature an ultra-thin lip and stem. But still, somehow manage to be strong enough to be 100% dishwasher safe.
The whole glass is seamless and crystal clear, providing the perfect view of your champagne.
These glasses may be a bit pricey, but they are some of the best champagne wine glasses that money can buy.
Budget Wine Glass for Champagne
The Chef & Sommelier Krysta Domaine Glass has made it onto our list of top wine glasses before, and that’s because they make an incredible wine glass for an inexplicably low price.
These glasses are built from patented Krysta glass, which gives them 30% more strength than crystal at the rim and 2x the strength of crystal as the stem. Yet, they manage to match crystal in transparency and perfect pitch.
These glasses are an amazing choice for champagne and a no brainer for any other wine as well.
The Stemless Champagne Glass
The stemless champagne glass is just a traditional champagne flute without the stem.
Pros
Like a traditional champagne flute, they help preserve and present bubbles as they rise from the center of the glass.
Cons
Like a traditional champagne flute, they share the drawbacks of having such a thin profile, in that they don’t hold aroma very much and therefore shouldn’t be used with any aged or complex champagnes.
The stemless wine glass also forces the drinker to hold the glass by the bowl.
When doing this, the heat from your hand will slowly begin to warm the champagne, changing the overall taste and aroma. This is not a good thing.
You will also notice that you can’t keep fingerprints of a stemless champagne glass since you are forced to hold it by the bowl.
When You Should Use a Stemless Champagne Flute
Truthfully, you should never drink champagne from a stemless wine glass.
It is probably the least effective glass at delivering aroma; it forces you to hold the bowl, which causes heat transfer from your hand and fingerprints.
It all around wasn’t a great design. With that being said, people absolutely love them. We do too. They are good-looking, they’re easy to hold, and they’re fun.
We just don’t suggest that you pour your best bottle of champagne into one.
Best Stemless Champagne Glass
Since stemless champagne flutes don’t offer the perfect tasting experience, we decided to pick our stemless champagne glasses based on style.
And there is no stemless champagne glass in the world that we think looks better than the Viski Raye Faceted Crystal Champagne Glass.
This poly faceted lead-free crystal glass is absolutely stunning. The faceted design rises from a star-shaped base and provides a prism effect as light travels through the glass.
The trigonal base then slowly rounds out into a perfectly circular rim for a pleasant sipping experience. The top of the glass is extremely thin, giving an exceptional feel on the lips.
Unfortunately, it is not dishwasher safe, so these must be washed by hand.
Premium Stemless Champagne Glass
The Riedel O Wine Tumbler Champagne Glass comes in a set of 4.
It is made from machine clown non-leaded crystal. The glass has a thicker base, which makes them sturdy and strong. But they slowly thin out as the glass reaches the top so that it still maintains a nice thin lip.
The glasses have a good weight to them, offering a solid feel in your hand. And like all Riedels, these glasses are 100% dishwasher safe.
Budget Stemless Champagne Glass
This is the Libbey Stemless Champagne Flute Glasses. These are budget glasses all the way through. They are machine-made with lead-free glass.
The glass, including the rim, is a little bit thicker than most champagne glasses on this list, but that extra thickness definitely gives it more durability.
Although it is thicker, it is not too heavy and still has a nice weight to the glass when it sits in your hand.
These glasses are dishwasher safe.
They come in a pack of 12 at an unbelievably low price. And are definitely worth the small jump from plastic stemless champagne glasses to these real glass ones.
It will make a difference to bring the party for whoever you are celebrating to the next level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Different Types of Champagne Glasses?
There are 4 traditional types of champagne glasses to choose from. There is the traditional champagne flute, found either stemmed or stemless.
There is the Tulip glass, there is the Coupé glass, sometimes referred to as a cocktail glass, and there is the traditional wine glass.
What are the Best Glasses for Champagne?
The best glass for champagne is dependent on the goal.
For the preservation and presentation of bubbles, the champagne flute is best.
For enjoying the aroma and flavor, a wine glass would be best, and the tulip glass falls in the middle as a great all-around glass for both bubbles and aroma.
What is the Difference Between Wine and Champagne Glasses?
A wine glass can be used for champagne, but a champagne glass cannot be used for wine.
The champagne glass is designed solely to preserve and present the bubbles in the champagne.
A wine glass is designed to display the aroma and flavor of whatever is put inside of it. That is why it can be used for both wine and champagne.
