La Rochere Coteau

Think about how you pour. With 20 cl you fill to about halfway, so around 10 cl per glass, and top up a few times during the meal. Anyone who would rather pour a generous glass per course and swirl the wine is better off with a larger bowl from the wine glasses, or specifically the white wine glasses. The tumbler of the same 20 cl stands beside the wine glass on the table for water, and the fact that both hold the same amount makes laying the table simple. Both sizes come in sixes, so one pack of each sets a full table.

A glass of this size calls for young, fresh wine that you serve cool and drink briskly, not for a bottle that needs hours to open up. It works nicely for an aperitif, and anyone pouring round a jug of sangria in France or Spain uses exactly this kind of small glass. The page with mocktails has alcohol-free serves that suit it too. Use the tumbler for water with the meal or for juice at breakfast; thanks to the thick base it stays put even on a wobbly garden table.

Coteau is pressed soda-lime glass with a thick wall and a short, solid stem. That is exactly why the range lasts: on a stemmed glass it is usually the join between bowl and stem that breaks, and here that join is short and heavily built. The glasses are dishwasher safe. Place them upright and apart in the rack, and use rinse aid if you have hard water, otherwise a dull layer of limescale settles on the wall over time.

The brand's other ranges, from carafes to larger bowls, are gathered on the page for La Rochère. For a sturdier everyday glass in the same spirit there are the tumbler glasses. And anyone after that pressed, slightly old-fashioned look in other shapes and from other brands should look at the vintage glasses, where the pressed work of several glassworks sits together.