Zwiesel Glas Belfesta

Start with what you pour most often. The burgundy bowl of 70 cl is the wide shape for red wine with plenty of aroma, while the champagne glass of 21.5 cl stays narrow and has a moussage point in the base that keeps the bubbles going. For spirits there is a whisky glass of 30.6 cl and a cognac glass of 61.2 cl, the latter deliberately large so the vapour has room. If you are looking for the same shape outside this range, have a look at the champagne flute glasses or at the wider offering from Zwiesel Glas.

A decanter serves two different purposes. With young red wine you pour over to add air, with old wine precisely to leave the sediment behind, and for that you pour slowly and in one continuous movement. For white wine there is a separate, slimmer carafe.

The martini glass of 36.5 cl asks to be chilled beforehand. Put it in the freezer for five minutes before you pour a dry martini, and do the same for a champagne cocktail.

Zwiesel Glas makes the range in crystal glass that is tempered right through, so stem and bowl come from a single piece. That is exactly the place where a wine glass normally breaks, so these glasses take the dishwasher better than their thin wall suggests.

Wash on a short programme and rinse with soft water. With the carafes, dry afterwards with a lint-free cloth, because drops stay there for a long time and leave marks.

If you are after the carafes on their own, the decanters have their own page, with the plain carafes and the funnels alongside them in the menu. If you want to compare the bottle cooler with other models, look at the champagne coolers, where the ice buckets are as well. And if you only want the stemmed glass for serving cocktails, without the rest of the table setting, you will find that shape among the martini glasses.