Bohemia Columba

The two bowls do different jobs. The 40 cl is the size that suits both light red wine and full-bodied white: enough surface for the aroma to open up, not so much that a normal pour looks lost. The 50 cl is meant for robust red wine and only works well if you fill it to a third at most. The 26 cl flute is roomier than the usual 17 to 20 cl, which means you get two glasses out of a half bottle instead of three. The 38 cl tumbler takes water, soft drinks and spirits over ice. The alternatives are with the large wine glasses and the red wine glasses.

Fill the 50 cl to its widest point and no higher: that gives you about 15 cl, a generous pour, while the rest of the bowl gathers the aroma. Swirl gently with the base on the table rather than in the air. Sparkling wine goes into the flute in two goes along the wall, so the foam settles before you top up. For a festive start, the champagne cocktail and the mimosa are the standard choices in this shape.

Modern crystal glass is lead-free and therefore sturdier than the lead crystal of old, which had to be washed by hand. Columba can go in the dishwasher on a glassware programme. The haze that sometimes remains is limescale from the water, not damage: rinsing with warm water and drying straight away with a lint-free cloth removes it. Store the bowls upright with space between them.

The full range from the Czech house is with Bohemia. For sparkling wine outside this series, look at the champagne flute glasses, and for water and spirits at the tumbler glasses. An opened bottle keeps its flavour longer with a wine stopper. If you would rather have glassware that runs day in, day out without you having to think about it, thick-walled pressed glass is a wiser choice than crystal glass with a thin rim.