SPIEGELAU Lifestyle

The choice starts with what is going into the glass. For red wine, the 63 cl bowl is the roomiest: a normal pouring measure fits in with enough air above it. The 44 cl is the everyday size for white and rosé and works perfectly well with a light red too. Water goes into the 34 cl tumbler, low enough for a full cupboard. For a gin and tonic or a spritz, take the 51 cl long drink, in which ice and a slice of citrus still leave room. If you only want a low glass without a stem, the 34 cl tumbler is the most versatile model in the series.

Fill a wine bowl to about a third, so up to the widest point of the belly. That looks modest, but it gives the wine the space the shape intends. The 31 cl coupette and the 22 cl martini glass are at their best cold: put them in the freezer for a quarter of an hour before pouring. Fill the 31 cl flute slowly and at an angle. The series also includes a decanting carafe of 2.9 litres and a carafe of 1.13 litres for water on the table. The long drink goes well with an Aperol Spritz.

Lifestyle is machine-drawn from lead-free crystal glass with a reinforced join between bowl and stem, exactly the place where wine glasses usually break. The glasses may go in the dishwasher as long as the bowls do not touch each other in the rack. The coloured tumblers keep their colour because it sits in the glass itself and is not printed on top; they do not fade after a few hundred washes. Dry the stems with a linen cloth.

Is this series not what you are after? All the brand's series are at Spiegelau, and the broader overview by shape is under the wine glasses. For sparkling wine, head to the champagne flute glasses, and for everyday thirst to the water glasses, which the tumbler glasses follow on from. And if you want to fill the 31 cl coupette: the recipe for a Bellini is there step by step.