Wine is one of those drinks that it universal. It is drunk in nearly every country in the world and invariably it is from a glass. What we should be asking ourselves however is, how come glass? Why not from a mug, plastic cup or wooden goblet? Sadly, there is no definitive answer for this. Wine is actually drunk from a number of non-glass containers in different countries. For example in Japan, wine is drunk from a ceramic vase-shaped container and in Thailand, wooden cups are often used. However, the overriding choice of tableware drinking vessel, wherever you go, is glass. It’s really more a result of other methods not being appropriate than glass being that special in any way. Lets examine what else is on offer.

Wood. Wine is indeed drunk from wooden vessels as highlighted previously, although it doesn’t come without some big downsides. Stains are the first major issue, which more often than not occur as a result of red wine drinking. Even the less porous harder woods fall victim to this fate before long. Further to this, wood has a habit of rotting when its remains wet for any great length of time. So you would have to spend time making sure it was bone dry after using each time.

Metal. If you’ve ever used a metal vessel to consume wine from, you’ll understand how the flavour is not quite right. something called ‘displacement’ takes place with lots of wines as a result of the high ion count in most metals. This essentially means that often a number of the metal’s ions displace into the wine and this causes an alteration in the flavour. This is why you often pick up metallic notes when drink from this type of cup. Also, because of its very heat-conductive qualities, almost any other material would keep the wine cooler when you’re holding it

Ceramic.  Like glass, ceramic is non porous, does not release any of its qualities into the wine, and can be easily cleaned with a glass cloth. This is why lots of people do use ceramic, although there will never be as many people as use glass because, very simply, you cannot see what is in the vessel. Part of the joy of drinking a nice wine is swirling it around the glass examining its colours and textures. It is a very primitive desire and it has stuck with us ever since glass was invented.