The other evening we were served a sparkling rose in a pinot noir glass. Not only that, but the wine was decanted to remove some but not all of the effervescence.
Who does this? I have never seen this before and how dare they ruin my ideology of how sparkling wines should be served!!!
Except it was marvelous, the aroma, taste, flavor, mellowed bubbles, even the action of decanting a sparkling wine. Sure, champagne flutes are sexy. The thought which I had yet to have was does that mean that is the only appropriate glass for drinking sparkling wines. No!!
In fact, now at home I have been doing rigorous tests drinking champagne from red wine glasses to see if the experience I had at the restaurant was a fluke. It was not, and I like drinking champagne from a pinot noir or syrah glass; I can swirl and sniff and taste without dainty pretensions or truly the thought of sloshing champagne from the traditional flute.
While the aesthetic and tradition dictates the necessity for drinking sparkling wine from a flute true taste and really comfort prove otherwise.
Thus, another question comes to mind, who writes the rules of food and wine, and when we break them or deviate from the normal what is the worst that can happen? If thought, insight and a bit of chance or luck are applied to food and wine, not just a need to follow the lemmings a great evolution may take place; of course there is always a chance for failure--just ask the lemming who failed to jump off the cliff and decided to live another day.
