Wine glass hack changes the taste of sauvignon blanc

Have you sworn off drinking sauvignon blanc after it left a bad taste in your mouth? It’s not always the wine, with glassware changing the way we enjoy our favourite drop. Here’s why.

Thought you were drinking bad wine? Maybe you were drinking out of the wrong glassware. Picture: Supplied.

HAVE you sworn off sauvignon blanc after it left a bad taste in your mouth?

The white wine is one of Australia’s most popular varieties, but it’s not always served in glassware to give the drop justice.

The delicate fruit-driven vino with a refreshing fruit bouquet is often misunderstood in the glass — instead whiffing of booze and leaving a vinegar aftertaste.

Former sauv blanc drinkers have jumped ship to pinot gris or pinot grigio.

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Plumm's Matt Dunne and Mark Evangelista Picture: Kitti Gould.

But Plumm’s Mark Evangelista wants to change your mind — and he’ll do it with a special wine glass and an $18 plonk from the bottle-o.

“It’s about the science of the bowl shape … allowing the widest part of the bowl to aerate the wine,” Mark says.

“All the notes of sauvignon blanc are delicate. So with the glass, we aren’t enclosing it so much to trap the bouquet so it smells of alcohol and vinegar. Sometimes (certain glassware) traps it too much.”

Melbourne company Plumm makes glassware for a variety of wine styles and is designed to deliver each wine to a certain point on the palate — changing the way it tastes.

With the sauvignon blanc glass, Mark says: “The wine is delivered straight down the mouth, from the front to the back of the tongue.

“It’s a linear and direct palate delivery, the acidity lands in the middle and feels very fresh, elevates in the mouth and dances across the tongue.”

Some Plumm glassware styles. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

A result not always achieved in glassware we’re using at home, in some restaurants and bars, and in all-rounder tasting glasses at wine expos.

“Wine is complex enough, we don’t need to add the complexity of glassware,” he says.

Plumm’s range is made in Slovakia from European crystal using the pulled stem method — whether its hand or machine made, each glass comes from one piece of crystal.

The company sells two styles of glassware each for red and white, a champagne flute and unique bowl.

Rocco Esposito, former Vue De Monde sommelier, designed the champagne bowl for the venue’s proposed high-end Cristal Room.

The glass, designed as a bowl rather than a flute, compliments the pinot noir grapes found in champagne.

“He wanted the wine to hit the palate at a certain place and (the bowl) gives more bouquet than the traditional flute,” he says.

“The flared lip (of the glass) decompresses the bottom lip and exposes the tip of their tongue, so the drinker experiences the sweetness of the flavour.”

Champagne aside, next time you’re looking for a white wine in the bottle-shop give the forgotten sauvignon blanc another chance. With the right glassware, you won’t look back.

@Kara_Irving