Four Glasses for Bubbles: Here’s What the Pros Prefer

Pop the cork — the real celebration starts now. 🥂

Sparkling wine is all about joy — but when the wine inside the bottle is truly exceptional, every detail matters. At Vitis House, we remind our students that the glass you choose can lift a wine to its fullest expression… or hold it back.

For decades, the flute has symbolized celebration: tall, narrow, elegant, and designed to show off a perfect stream of bubbles. Its popularity skyrocketed in Champagne in the 20th century, and the world followed. The physics support it — as WSET highlights, the narrow shape limits surface exposure, helping preserve carbonation. For light, young sparkling wine, and those first playful sips at a party, the flute still does its job beautifully.

But as sparkling wines became more complex — longer aging, deeper lees character, more artistry — the industry began to question the ritual. Wine Folly and most educators including myself, pointed out a key flaw: flutes mute the aroma, and aroma is where the soul of a great sparkling wine lives.

Enter the tulip-shaped glass. With a slightly wider bowl at the base and a gentle taper toward the rim, it allows bubbles to rise with energy while giving aromas space to expand and concentrate. Riedel, the global leader in wine glass design, has championed this shape as the ideal balance for premium sparkling wines. Many of us in education agree — especially when we pour a long-aged Cava, a vintage Champagne, or any traditional-method wine meant to be savored slowly, like Franciacorta. The cost of this glass can be on the higher side, but now we can all chill — more brands are creating similar designs at friendlier prices.

And then there is the evolving preference of sommeliers and critics for certain bottles: the universal or white-wine glass, like the Riedel wine tasting glass we use for classes or even a pinch bigger. When a sparkling wine has spent years aging on its lees — when it offers brioche, toasted nuts, or oxidative complexity — it deserves air and room to reveal itself. Jancis Robinson put it simply: even Champagne producers increasingly admit that their finest cuvées behave like fine still wines… and should be treated that way. The best restaurants in the world now quietly serve top sparkling wines in generous bowls that allow the wine’s story to unfold.

At Vitis House, we teach that a good sparkling wine isn’t a party trick — it’s craft, tradition, patience, and place. Choosing the right glass honors both the people who made it and the time that shaped it.

Because when we respect what’s inside the bottle, we respect the glass. 🥂
(And yes, I’m still waiting for a better sparkling wine emoji…)