Eclat

Longchamp is the broadest series and the obvious starter set: a 32 cl tumbler and a smaller 23 cl one, long drink glasses of 36 and 28 cl, a 14 cl flute, a 4.5 cl shot glass and a 6 cl liqueur glass. That covers an entire table in a single pattern. Ultime goes one size up, with a 35 cl tumbler and a 45 cl long drink, plus a 21 cl champagne glass with a gold rim. Macassar and Ornements stay with the 32 cl tumbler, while Rendez-Vous and Lady Diamond put the accent on the 25 and 27 cl bowls.

Choose your size by what goes in, not by what looks good. For whisky neat or a cocktail with a single ice cube, 32 to 35 cl is plenty, and that is what you find with the old fashioned glasses. For water and soft drinks at the table, the taller sizes are more comfortable. The 25 to 27 cl bowls are more compact than most white wine glasses and belong with an aperitif rather than an extensive wine list.

Put cut glass where the light falls on it. A Longchamp tumbler on a table with candles shows exactly what the pattern was made for; the same tumbler under a hard kitchen spot does almost nothing. That is not a detail but the reason these series exist, and it explains why they mainly come out for dinners and holidays.

For drinks, the 6 cl liqueur glasses and the 4.5 cl shots from the same series work well together: limoncello, jenever or a herbal bitter straight from the freezer, in a small measure and ice cold. The 14 and 21 cl flutes are on the narrow side, which makes them excellent for a champagne cocktail where the sugar cube has to keep fizzing at the bottom. If you would rather pour something brown, use the tumblers for an old fashioned with one large ice cube.

Crystalline is glass with a raised mineral content that comes close to the clarity and refraction of crystal, but without lead. In practice that means two things: you can safely keep drink in it for longer, and the glass is harder than real lead crystal, so it scratches less easily. The flip side is that the cut grooves hold on to dirt where smooth glass does not.

So wash on a short cycle and rinse thoroughly, because soap residue settles right in the cut grooves and dulls the pattern. Polish with a dry, lint-free cloth and work in the direction of the grooves. Limescale marks come off with a dash of vinegar in the rinsing water. Keep glasses with a gold rim out of the dishwasher and wash them by hand, otherwise the rim wears away.

If it is the bubbles you are after, the narrow shapes are with the champagne flutes and the wide ones with the coupes, both with more brands side by side. To add to the small sizes from Longchamp, look at the liqueur glasses, where you will also find the matching shot and spirit measures. And if you regularly open a bottle of sparkling wine, a champagne cooler keeps it at temperature without having to put it back in the fridge each time.