This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
OK, I admit it. I watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I watch it for some mindless, vapid fun. But, recently I was annoyed by a story line that took place. One of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills had the other women over to her house and rosé wine was accidentally served in a Champagne flute.
Another of the housewives, Dorit, proceeded to make a big deal about this mistake, embarrassing the host. Dorit arrogantly stated, “The fact that I know a wine glass from a Champagne glass is etiquette” and that she feels “like it needs to go in the right glass.”
Well, the reality star needs to know what the right glass is, and it is not a Champagne flute. While the Champagne flutes are synonymous with sparkling wine, ask most sommeliers and they will tell you the same thing. Nathaniel Munoz, wine director of the Rose Café in Venice, California explained, “Champagne has a gorgeous complexity of aromatics from red apple, to golden raisins, to chalk, to rich marzipan and milk chocolate. Restricting those notes because someone thinks it’s fancy to watch carbonation bubbles float to the top of the glass just seems uneducated.”
Maurizio Zanella, founder of Ca’ del Bosco, one of Italy’s foremost Franciacorta producers, offers five reasons why we should never use a Champagne flute.
