Schott Zwiesel Ivento

Two sizes are enough for most tables. The 34.9 and 35 cl wine glasses are the white wine size: small enough for the wine to stay cool until your glass is empty. The 50.6 or 51 cl bowl is the all-round size, in which a chardonnay works just as well as a light red.

If you pour full-bodied red wine more often, go bigger. The 63 cl gives cabernet and syrah room to breathe, and the 78 cl burgundy glass is the roundest shape in the range, for pinot noir and nebbiolo. The 23 cl flute keeps the bubbles tight.

In a restaurant a fixed measure per glass applies; at home you are freer, but the rule stays the same: pour up to the widest point of the bowl and no further. In the 78 cl burgundy glass that looks like very little, and that is exactly where the gain is, because only then can you swirl without spilling.

Serve white wine at around eight to ten degrees and red wine at around sixteen. Hold the glass by the stem, otherwise your hand warms the wine within a few minutes.

Ivento is made from Tritan crystal glass. Titanium and zirconium replace the lead in it, so the bowl and the stem take more punishment and the glass stays clear instead of turning milky over time.

All the glasses are dishwasher safe. Stand them upright and apart from each other, and rinse with soft water if you live in a hard water area, because limescale is the main cause of dull glasses.

You will find the whole brand at Schott Zwiesel, and everything else that ends up on restaurant tables under hospitality glassware. If you are browsing by type rather than by range, have a look at the wine glasses, the white wine glasses or the champagne flutes. For that 23 cl flute, a mimosa and a bellini are the most obvious choices.