Glassware Challenge: Apparently, the Glass Matters

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5 different types of whiskey glasses on a table
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By Sean Duley, Bourbon Lens Patreon member

At some point in every whiskey drinker’s life, there comes a moment when you stop asking, “Is this whiskey good?” and start asking questions that would have seemed completely ridiculous a few years earlier.

Questions like:

“What if I put the same whiskey in five different types of glasses?”

And, shortly afterward:

“Does the shape of this glass determine the aromas and flavors I get from the whiskey?”

Congratulations. You’ve officially gone too far down the whiskey rabbit hole.

I decided to put five different glasses to the test: a Baby Glen, a Glencairn, a Bourbon Trail bulb-shaped glass, a small stemless wine glass, and a traditional rocks glass.

The goal was pretty simple. Same whiskey. Different glasses. Pay attention to the nose and the palate, and see what changed.

What I discovered is that the glass actually does matter.

The Baby Glen: Tiny Glass, Big Attitude

Let’s start with the Baby Glen, which is essentially a miniature Glencairn.

It’s adorable.

It is also very, very small.

The Nose

The opening on this thing is tiny, and that creates an interesting experience.

On the positive side, it does a good job of concentrating aromas. If you’re looking for a particular smell and want to get right down to business with one nostril, this glass is ready for the assignment.

But if you’re trying to move the aromas around and find different notes, forget it.

The opening feels so restrictive that I found myself wishing the glass would just give the whiskey some room to breathe.

It’s like trying to smell a campfire through a straw.

The Palate

Things get even more interesting once the whiskey reaches the mouth.

The opening is so narrow that the whiskey doesn’t really have an opportunity to spread across the palate on its own. Instead, you have to take over the job.

Sip.

Spread whiskey across palate.

Question life choices.

The whiskey is certainly there, but I felt like I was doing most of the work. That could be a good thing if you really want to focus the whiskey on certain parts of the palate.

The Baby Glen is great if you want a very focused experience and want to pour less whiskey for the tasting.

The Glencairn: The Goldilocks of Whiskey Glasses

Next up is the Glencairn, or, as it’s commonly called, the Glen.

It’s the classic tulip-shaped whiskey glass with a solid base and a smaller opening at the top.

And honestly, this is where things started to make sense.

The Nose

The Glen has a very specific sweet spot when you’re nosing whiskey.

Get your nose too far into the glass, and suddenly you’re not smelling whiskey anymore. You’re getting an unsolicited ethanol facial.

Pull your nose too far away, and the aromas disappear.

But find that sweet spot… now we’re talking.

The tulip shape funnels the aromas upward and concentrates them around the opening. You can really get into the whiskey without having to bury your entire face in the glass.

It’s a delicate balance, but once you find it, the Glen works extremely well.

The Palate

This is where the Glencairn won me over. The opening is just about perfect for my palate.

The whiskey comes through in a controlled stream, spreads across my palate, and doesn’t immediately try to escape through the corners.

That’s important.

With some of the other glasses, I felt like I needed to manage the whiskey once it arrived. With the Glen, the glass seems to take care of that for me.

The whiskey gets onto the palate, spreads naturally, and lets me concentrate on tasting it instead of wondering where the heck it went.

For me, this was the winner.

The Bourbon Trail Glass: Let It All Hang Out

The Bourbon Trail glass is a bulb-shaped glass with a wider bowl, a solid base, and a much wider opening than the Glencairn.

And that wider opening changes things.

The Nose

This was actually one of my favorite surprises.

The wider opening seems to let some of the ethanol escape while keeping the whiskey’s aromas inside the glass.

With the Glen, there’s a fairly precise balance between “I’m smelling whiskey” and “I’m smelling ethanol.”

The Bourbon Trail glass gives you more room to work.

The point where you’re getting too much air and not enough whiskey aroma is much deeper in the glass.

In other words, you can stick your nose in there without immediately getting punched in the face by ethanol.

Always a plus.

The Palate

Unfortunately, the same thing that makes the Bourbon Trail glass interesting on the nose makes it a little less appealing to me on the palate.

The opening is wider, and that means the whiskey has options. Too many options.

Instead of being directed across my palate like it is with the Glencairn, the whiskey spreads out toward the corners of my mouth and even my upper lip.

Apparently, I have become the kind of person who has an opinion about whiskey touching his upper lip. Pinkies out, I guess.

The Bourbon Trail glass coats the palate nicely, but it doesn’t give the same level of control as the Glencairn.

The Small Stemless Wine Glass: The Unexpected Contender

Then there was the small stemless wine glass. I wasn’t expecting much from this one, and that’s exactly why it surprised me.

It’s a bulb-shaped glass with a narrower opening than the Bourbon Trail glass, and it ended up being an interesting mix of the Glencairn and the Bourbon Trail.

The Nose

The bulb shape narrows toward the opening, like the Glencairn, which helps focus the whiskey’s aromas.

But the opening is a little larger, so some of the ethanol stays part of the experience. And, shockingly, I liked it. It was a surprisingly pleasant combination.

The whiskey had focus without feeling quite as restricted as it did in the Glen.

This was probably my biggest surprise of the entire experiment.

The Palate

Unfortunately, the wine glass couldn’t quite repeat that success on the palate.

It behaves more like the Bourbon Trail glass. The whiskey spreads nicely, but I don’t get the same sense of control I get from the Glencairn.

The biggest problem for me was the thickness of the glass around the opening. That thicker rim changes the way the whiskey gets onto the palate. It wasn’t terrible; it was actually more manageable than the Bourbon Trail glass. Perhaps if I could find a small stemless wine glass with a thinner rim, the results would be different.

But once you’ve experienced the Glencairn, it’s hard not to notice the difference.

The Rocks Glass: The Glass That Just Wants to Have a Good Time

Finally, we arrive at the rocks glass, sometimes called a lowball glass.

You know this one.

Straight sides. Big opening. Perfectly happy to hold whiskey, ice, cocktails, or pretty much anything else you pour into it.

And that’s the problem.

It doesn’t really care what you’re doing.

The Nose

Nosing whiskey from a rocks glass is nearly useless.

I could probably dip my nose directly into the whiskey and still somehow smell nothing but air.

The straight sides don’t funnel anything toward your nose, and the wide opening doesn’t concentrate the aromas.

It’s basically the whiskey equivalent of shouting into an empty parking lot.

The Palate

Now, to be fair, the rocks glass does one thing extremely well:

It gets whiskey into your mouth.

And if your plan involves a giant ice cube, congratulations. You’ve found your glass.

But if you’re drinking whiskey neat and trying to pick apart the aromas, flavors, and finish, I wouldn’t reach for this one.

That’s not really a criticism.

The rocks glass isn’t trying to be a tasting glass.

It’s here to hold your whiskey and mind its own business.

Honestly, I respect that.

So, Does the Glass Actually Matter?

After working through all five glasses, I’m convinced that it does. Not because the glass changes the whiskey itself. The whiskey is still the whiskey.

What changes is how the whiskey gets delivered to your senses.

  • The Baby Glen concentrates everything so much that it starts to feel restrictive.
  • The Glencairn strikes a really nice balance between concentrating aromas and controlling the flow of whiskey onto the palate.
  • The Bourbon Trail glass opens things up, especially on the nose, but gives the whiskey a lot more freedom to explore the corners of your mouth.
  • The small stemless wine glass sits somewhere between the two and turned out to be a surprisingly good option.
  • The rocks glass? Well, if you want to put a big cube of ice in your whiskey, it’s ready and waiting.

But here’s the thing: there may not be a universally “best” whiskey glass.

It really depends on what you’re trying to do.

Want to analyze a whiskey and really dig into the nose? Grab a Glen.

Want something a little more open and forgiving? Try the Bourbon Trail or the wine glass.

Want to put a massive ice cube in your drink and forget about all this nonsense? The rocks glass is calling your name.

And if you find yourself spending an afternoon comparing the way whiskey lands on different parts of your palate?

Don’t worry.

You’re not alone.

You’re just one of us now.

This post was written by Sean Duley, a member of the Bourbon Lens Patreon community. Want to share your own whiskey adventures? Join us on Patreon.

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