The other evening we were served a sparkling rosé in a pinot noir glass. Not only that, but the wine was decanted to remove some but not all of the effervescence. Who does this? I have never seen this before, and how dare they ruin my ideology of how sparkling wines should be served! Except it was marvelous. The aroma, taste, flavor, mellowed bubbles, even the action of decanting a sparkling wine were delightful. Sure, champagne flutes are sexy, but the thought I had yet to have was, does that mean that is the only appropriate glass for drinking sparkling wines? No!
In fact, now at home, I have been doing rigorous tests drinking champagne from red wine glasses to see if the experience I had at the restaurant was a fluke. It was not, and I like drinking champagne from a pinot noir or syrah glass. I can swirl and sniff and taste without dainty pretensions or the thought of sloshing champagne from the traditional flute.
While the aesthetic and tradition dictate the necessity for drinking sparkling wine from a flute, true taste and, really, comfort prove otherwise. Thus, another question comes to mind: who writes the rules of food and wine, and when we break them or deviate from the norm, what is the worst that can happen? If thought, insight, and a bit of chance or luck are applied to food and wine, not just a need to follow the lemmings, a great evolution may take place. Of course, there is always a chance for failure–just ask the lemming who failed to jump off the cliff and decided to live another day.
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