Wine glasses come in many shapes, sizes, stemmed, stemless and now you can have your very own personalized wine glasses.  Whether you are searching for yourself, a gift or you wish to paint your own wine glasses it can be done!  There are many companies that now offer etched wine glasses or painted wine glasses.  You can also paint your own to sell!

Many companies will allow you to pick from standard messages but you can also create your own and this is the category most of you will fall into.  Maybe you are getting married and you want your champagne flutes to be a dedication to the couple and the day or your anniversary is around the corner and your spouse loves wine, well a customized wine glass with a their name or a special message is a perfect gift idea!  Don’t forget that “over the hill” birthday coming up, a funny message on a glass is always good for a laugh and it is something they can always bring out for laughs for years to come.  An easy way to find someone to do this for you is to do a quick search on Google for “personalized wine glasses” or “customized wine glasses”.  This should bring up many companies who want your business!

A great business idea is hand painted wine glasses.  I have attended many craft shows where there is at least one person selling painted wine glasses.  Some of the neatest sets I have seen is a set of four glasses hanging from a wine bottle.  This is accomplished by making (out of wood) a hanger that you can hang all four of the glasses by their stems around the bottle.  This hanger is also painted to match the painted wine glasses.  These make wonderful gifts or even displays in your home as well as a lucrative business!  Many times these painted glasses are dishwasher safe, but I would always recommend hand washing your special stemware.

So whether your goal is buying a gift or trying out a new business, customized wine glasses might be the answer.  Either way, be sure to do your research to maximize your benefit and potential.  Make sure to pick up wine making kits for additional gift giving ideas.  Check out Home and Garden Co. for additional information on home accessories.

A new and interesting innovation to wine glasses has been the stemless wine glass.  This craze seems to be catching on and the stemless wine glass is the new black.  Consumers are catching the buzz because more and more of the trendiest hot-spots, restaurants and bars are beginning to use the stemless wine glasses in place of the traditional glass.  This is due in part to the wine industry trying to make the experience of wine more acceptable to the layman and stop making it feel so sophisticated or unattainable.  Maybe the swirling wine in a tumbler seems more blue collar then holding a glass by the stem with your pinky held out.

Some of you may be wondering now about the temperature of drinking wine out of a tumbler.  Well if you talk to the glassware companies they will tell you that the ease of a tumbler that fits into your dishwasher is much more practical and that you should probably drink your white wine a little faster so the temperature stays pleasingly cool.  Of course it appears enough of you want your cake and to eat it too and apparently the industry has listened and is now making stemless wine glasses in a variety of shapes to accommodate you slow drinkers.

Since before there was wine, there were vessels to hold it.  Yes, as unbelievable as it might sound, there were containers that held liquid before wine was created.    Along with the standard silver, gold or pewter goblets, there were baked clay pottery, gourds made of leather and even animal horns were used for containing wine for consumption.  These were the utensils used when one was making the attempt to appear civilized, otherwise drinking straight from the much larger storage unit was completely acceptable.

Even though as far back as 50 A.D., ancient scientist Pliny the Elder encouraged glass as the preferred vessel for containing wine, it was not feasible due to the fact that glass was one of the most highly treasured materials of that time and ancient technology made glass making far too expensive and difficult a process.  In fact, the earliest version of the wine glass, consisting of a base, stem and foot dates back to the 15th Century.  Of course today glass is very easy to produce which makes it extremely affordable compared to previous centuries, even as late as the beginning of the 20th century glass was difficult to mass produce.  One can understand how glass was just as expensive as precious metal a few hundred years ago.

During the Industrial Revolution the mass production of glass became the norm and suddenly the working class folks could afford sets of wine glasses.  Glasses were sold in sets containing a dozen and suddenly all sorts of glasses were made affordable such as champagne flutes, wine goblets, and sherry glasses.  This time in history made glass the preferred materiel for wine and suddenly people could covet the color and body of the wine, which as most of us know is just as important as taste and imperative to getting the full experience out of the wine.  Glasses are now shaped specifically to enhance the bouquet of each type of wine (red, white and blush).  These advancements put a whole new element into wine drinking and enjoyment.

This site will discuss the importance of wine glasses and their shapes and how it relates to each wine.  The shape and size is very important in order to fully experience the enjoyment of wine.  When you consider all the other vessels used for drinking wine (ostrich egg cups dipped in silver, a piggin, a noggin and a bombard) glass as a material is by far superior and preferred.

Like me, you have probably been annoyed then intrigued by that nifty little invention called the wine glass charm.  Wine glass charms became a trend in the late 1990’s and continued to grow exponentially since then.  At first glance or sound you notice a clinking when someone is drinking and then you think to yourself  “what is that noise?” and then you notice something glinting off your mother’s wine glass and you ask “What is that?”.  She promptly tells you that it is her lucky charm and that she has many charms for wine glasses.  So you have a look and you instantly fall in love with the novelty of the whole idea.