Glassware

The Rheingau is the only German region where two very different wines compete for the same glass. We mean a lean white and a delicate red. Both need room for their aromas and little for their alcohol. Yet the right glass looks completely different for each.

For a dry Erstes Gewächs Riesling, a narrow, tall goblet with a tight opening works best. The narrow bowl directs the wine, on drinking, first to the tip of the tongue, away from the side edges, where the high acidity of a Rheingau Riesling would otherwise hit too sharply. The narrow opening also concentrates the delicate aromas of peach, citrus, and white blossom, which simply drift away in a wide glass before the nose ever catches them.

It's served cool: eight to ten degrees Celsius for a light Kabinett, two degrees warmer for a more powerful dry Erstes Gewächs. Any colder, and only the acidity comes through; any warmer, and the wine loses its freshness — the very balance for which the Charta association was founded back in 1984.

Assmannshausen Spätburgunder demands the opposite: a wide, round-bellied glass with plenty of surface area, the kind more familiar from Burgundy. Its color is pale, its tannin fine. In a narrow glass, it quickly comes across as thin and closed. Only the large bowl gives it room to unfold its cherry and wild strawberry aromas.

Both should be poured sparingly: a glass filled at most to its widest point, which in a typical goblet is around one hundred fifty milliliters. Filling to the brim robs the wine of exactly the space the glass was shaped to provide in the first place. Narrow for the Riesling, wide for the Spätburgunder.