Pasabahce Napa

The difference between the two wine glasses lies in the curve of the bowl. The 47 cl glass has a narrower bowl that concentrates the scent and keeps the wine cooler, which makes it the logical choice for white wine and for light reds. The 58 cl glass is fuller in shape, so red wine gets more contact with air and the tannin softens.

The 20 cl champagne flute is narrow and tall, so the carbon dioxide escapes slowly and the bubbles have a long run. If you want one size for everything, take the 47 cl: you can pour both white and red into it without hesitation.

Never fill a wine glass above the widest point of the bowl. For the 58 cl glass, this amounts to about one-third, which may seem little but leaves exactly enough room to swirl the wine. Fill the 47 cl glass to just below halfway.

Pour the 20 cl flute in two stages along the side so the foam does not spill over the rim. For a mimosa with fresh orange juice or a kir royal with a splash of crème de cassis, this is the ideal shape: narrow enough to retain the bubbles, yet spacious enough to add a little more.

Pasabahce draws the rim of the Napa thin, with no separate thickened band. That drinks pleasantly, but it is also the point where the glass breaks if you cram too many glasses into the dishwasher at once. Stand the bowls apart in a basket with supports.

The glass itself is machine-produced soda-lime glass and stands up to daily use. When drying, hold it by the bowl and not by the foot while you turn the bowl, because that is the movement that costs most stems their lives.

The complete range from this brand can be found at Pasabahce. If you search by shape instead of by series, you’ll find all the stemware in the wine glassessection, with a separate page for white wine glasses and for red wine glasses. The narrow models for sparkling wine are listed under champagne flute glasses, where all sizes from 15 to 25 cl are clearly displayed side by side.