When pouring wine, should I hold the wineglass up in the air?
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Dear Dr. Vinny,
When serving wine at a dining table, should I raise the glass in the air to pour, or leave it on the table? What about pouring refills?
—Amir, U.S.
Dear Amir,
In most situations, it’s perfectly OK (and actually preferred) to just leave the wineglass on the table. That’s true whether you’re first pouring the wine or giving refills.
It’s simply easier to pour wine into a glass that’s standing still on a flat surface. (And don’t worry about tilting the glass when you’re pouring sparkling wine—it’s better to leave the glass alone, pour a little bit of wine, let the initial bubbles dissipate and then complete the pour.) In formal wine service, it’s standard to leave the wineglass on the table while pouring. I’d be pretty surprised if a sommelier in a nice restaurant touched my wineglass, other than to first place it on the table, or to make room for another glass.
At home, if I’m the one pouring and happen to spill a little wine in the process, I’d rather it hit the table than the hand of a guest. And in most cases, having a fixed target to pour into makes it easier to serve the wine evenly and avoid spills. I find that more spills are actually caused by a well-meaning guest picking up their own wineglass, only to have a wobbly hand. Leaving the glass on the table just makes things easier for everyone.
That said, there are some situations in which grabbing your wineglass and holding it up might be helpful. I’m thinking of meals where I have several wineglasses in front of me and the table is a bit crowded. In those situations, I want to make sure the server is giving me a refill of the correct wine. Especially if a server might have to pour over my plate of food or otherwise stretch across the table, I might just pick up my wineglass (by the stem, naturally) and hold it up closer to the server. (You can bet I’ll also be holding my breath and hoping my paw doesn’t shake!)
It can also be helpful to pick up your glass at our New York Wine Experience seminars, where the long tables are packed with hundreds of wineglasses and the servers are moving quickly to pour tastes in the correct glass. In that situation, I sometimes like to hold up my glass, smile and whisper “Thank you.” Those servers are pretty amazing.
—Dr. Vinny
