Glassware

@DaveM very blind!

@Victor LOL!

@paddockjudge, I ordered 2. They looked cool on the website. I consider them a novelty. I ordered them before I smoked the turkey.

My cold is easing. The horseradish-grinding helped. I expect the nose to be at 100% by the time I see you next week.

@Nozinan, they are beautiful! I almost placed an order myself. I hope for you to be in top form.

@DaveM - Looks like it's made from Bristol Blue glass - a bit of a thing round these parts. Can't say I'd want to to drink from one but it looks pretty.

Anyone know where this glass (left) is from? (the Glencairn is just shown for scale). I bought four of these from behind the bar at Lock Street Brewery in St. Catharines, ON. Nosing is on par with the Glencairn, a 50ml pour measures to the middle of the bowl, and I gotta say, it's nice having the rim flute outward slightly...when drinking, it's just more comfortable, both in the way you sip, and the feel in-hand. Anyone seen these?

@dloewen I wonder if they do mail orders...

@Nozinan Do you mean Lock Street Brewery? Maybe I was unclear...I bought them there, but only because I asked the girl behind the counter if I could, to which she was quite perplexed. She decided $5 each was a safe price, and that was that...but she had no idea where the owner had sourced the glasses.

@dloewen $5 a glass? I think that should fall under "Steal of a deal"!

@Nozinan Yeah...I wasn't about to question her at that price!

My two favourite glasses for assessing whiskies. I find the Spiegelau best for nosing the more subtle aromas and aromatics in a single malt.

@fiddich1980

Before whisk(e)y, I was much into red wines, and Spieglau was my glasses of choice. Anyway, good choice in glassware for enjoying and appreciating whisk(e)y.

@ajjarrett The Spiegelau glass in the image is specifically designed as a Whisky Snifter. The flared opening enhances those aromatic nuances. I've noticed that nosing from a Glencairn tends to be too concentrated. The lower suble notes(aromas) tend to get swamped by the when nosing from a Glencairn. The best example of is when comparing a peated whisky from a Spiegelau and a Glencairn.

I'm not much of a glass specialist, but I got this on today's news feed so I thought I'd share -

gearpatrol.com/2019/04/25/the-neat-glass/

@RikS there was a lot of talk on Connosr about the Neat glass over 6 years ago:

connosr.com/which-glass-whisky-discussion-…

N.B. that on page 2 of the discussion a NEAT glass salesman (or company rep) makes multiple posts at length.

Some people apparently like the NEAT glass very much. That's my disclaimer.

@CognacFan gave me one as a gift a few years ago. The Neat glass makes me laugh! It is clumsy to drink from because it is easy to spill whisky trying to navigate that lip. I pull it out and offer others to try it out mostly for entertainment value.

I don't like ANY of those glasses that advertise dissipating alcohol vapour as a merit. For me personally the NEAT glass is a bad joke of a glass.

For a good time, ask @Robert99 what he thinks about the NEAT glass.

@Victor, imho, that Neat glass is a waste of good sand.

@Victor and @paddockjudge and others, with a decent history on Connosr. What is your **favourite glass **for whisk(e)y consumption? I have my suspicions but, it would be worthwhile consolidate opinions to this thread. There are multiple threads on "Glass" of over 200+ discussion threads on this site.

@fiddich1980 while I own 8 or 10 different glass designs my everyday favourite is a medium-sized brandy snifter. Glencairn is OK, but I consider it inferior to a snifter. I love the huge snifters too, but they are very inconvenient.

Basis for choice? Side by side comparisons of the same whiskies in different glasses.

@fiddich1980 I'll be trying out that Irish whisky glass soon, but at this time, for malts (and some Canadian whiskies) I like the Brilliant Highland Whisky glass. For peated Islays and (interestingly enough) Forty Creek Confederation Oak, I like the mini Glencairn, and for bourbons I like the Bourbon Trail bourbon glass.

@Nozinan, what is your choice of glass for Amrut?

@fiddich1980, my glassware of choice without a doubt is a medium/large snifter. There is however a danger associated with this style of glassware; the pours can easily get deep, warm, and delicious. Prudence should be exercised.

@Nozinan, @fiddich1980, the mini Glencairn is my instrument of choice on those extremely cold or stormy winter days when a wee nip is welcomed... in a hurry!

@Victor What constitutes a "medium sized" snifter? 8oz? 12oz?

@fiddich1980 Highland whisky glass, because it allows for the ASHOK manoeuvre,

@paddockjudge I find the medium snifters I have to be a bit too fragile for serious dramming... I do like them for my Lemon Hart 151...

I generally use the standard Glencairn. I like the feel and its robust nature. I can be a clumsy so and so and it even saves some if you knock the glass over ;) - it's a pretty perfect all-rounder. I'll use a snifter glass on occasion as I think the nose definitely shifts between the two, especially if directly comparing whiskys.

Once I'm familiar with a whisky I may then use my Taylor D's (similar to Bourbon trail glasses). The wider opening definitely changes the nose - it looses some nuances but sometimes i just want 'to drink' and it's perfect for that (and I can get a bit bigger with the pours without them appearing as large as they would in the other glasses )

On the rare occasions I add ice it has to be a traditional heavy tumbler that one can chink the ice about in!

@KRB80 the 'medium-sized' snifters I use most are about 10 oz filled to the brim. Smaller snifters than these are fine too, except that the smallest ones sometimes have the far rim collide with your nose when you try to drink from them. Those are too small.

About @Nozinan's comment about fragility of snifters: I've never broken one, but their design does require a little care in packing if one is taking them on the road. Now those big bowl snifters, I own one or two of those, but I wouldn't take them on the road for fear of breakage. They also take a lot of room to store at home and are tedious to clean. Great, in fact, for me, the best. nosing and tasting results come from using them though. There was a post from @Pierre several years ago in which he was checking out some big bowl proprietary glasses and was blown away by the tasting results. The big bowl glasses I use are of a very similar shape.

@Victor Thanks Victor. I have a nice 12oz'er that I'll put to the test.

I am a firm believer that the glass matters a great deal. I probably have close to 20 different nosing glass shapes. Over the years I have narrowed my favorites down.

Here are my favorite three glasses. The one on the far left has been my go to standard for over 15 years. I believe it gives me the best sense of a whiskey period. The way it delivers the nose is fantastic. I get all the high notes and the low bass tones as well as huge midrange flavors. I am much more disappointed with the standard Glencairn which by comparison will mute some flavors (often low tones) while accentuating others (often high tones). I feel like this brandy glass on the left really allows all the flavors in a whisky to bash me over the head full throttle. I love it. The one down side – and the reason I have moved on – is that this glass really needs a full 1 ounce pour to really allow me to get a sense of the nose. Whenever I use a half ounce pour I find I really miss out on some of the nuances of the nose.

This is why in the last year I have turned to the Ardbeg glass in the middle. Part of it is that when I was at Ardbeg and Lagavulin distilleries last year they only poured me small 20mL pours. And I have decided that I really want to train myself to be able to evaluate a whisky with 15mL-20mL pours and not need a full ounce.

So now I use this Ardbeg glass (and several others just like it) to evaluate all of my whiskies now. This is because I only do half ounce pours in tasting sessions now. The main reason is to cut down on my whisky consumption. I love tasting 4 to 6 whiskies side by side. But 4 to 6 ounces of cask strength whiskey on a semi regular basis is not good for me. Now I am often only consuming 2 to 3 ounces at most in a session. And my body is more appreciative. That said, this glass is not quite as good as the one on the left. It still mutes some flavors, but not nearly like the Glencairn.

My back up to the Ardbeg glass is the one on the right. This is the glass used by Bruichladdich. I really like this one as well. It even has a mark for 25mL which I appreciate. I use this for evaluating whiskies on their own.

@Nock, I have 22 of those mini brandy glasses (not quite a snifter), they are awesome. The Ardbeg glass is one that I've used before, and broken. It is a my preference for barley whiskies as is the "brilliant" glass. The back-up glass on the right looks like a nosing copita. I don't do well with stemmed glassware as I tend to send them tumbling, often when I'm reading and sipping or using a keyboard or headphones. The exception to this is a snifter with it's sturdy base and great balance.

I find fill levels in glasses to greatly influence the drinking experience, not from the perspective of potential intoxication, although it does, but from an organoleptic perspective. More isn't always better; however, a properly "filled" glass can help to enhance the experience.

It's nice to have variety in whisky and glassware.

@Victor, I used to use those big bowl snifters too (before I moved repeatedly, downsized, yada yada), until I finally found a glencairn at a local shop. Maybe it's a rose-colored rear-view mirror, but I feel like I used to get more out of my whiskies back when I had them, and I've been thinking of buying at least one more of them again to find out.