You’ve poured the champagne wrong, experts say – here’s how to serve it right

Put a cork in it – you poured bubbles all wrong.

Despite what we’ve been told, flutes are not ideal glasses for drinking champagne, according to experts.

Long, thin flutes are “terrible for appreciating wine,” sommelier Richard Hemming, head of wine at members-exclusive club 67 Pall Mall Singapore, told Business Insider.

“You have to go way back to drink the stuff,” he said, explaining that the narrow glass makes the bubbles concentrate and makes pouring and drinking the champagne a headache.

The narrow opening of the barrel doesn’t allow the consumer to properly smell the champagne – an integral part of enjoying the wine – and can affect the taste, Hemming claims.

Instead, he prefers to use a universal wine glass. While it seems sacrilegious to novice Champagne tasters, the sommelier insists the wider glass allows the drink to “express itself very clearly,” meaning sippers can smell the drink as they consume it.

He also emphasized how vital it is to have high-quality glassware for drinking. For example, his workplace uses expensive Zalto glasses.

But Hemming is not alone in his thinking.

“A good all-purpose wine glass is a great vessel for drinking champagne because it really allows you to take in all the flavors and experience the wine the way the producer intended,” the director of champagne previously told HuffPost. Summer Zero Bond and Sartiano, Cameron Nadler.

“Champagne glasses are not a thing of the past, but I think it’s better to drink champagne from a bigger glass.”

Champagne sales have fallen in recent months, luxury goods company LVMH reported over the summer. The company, which saw a 12% drop in sales in the first half of 2024 compared to last year, speculated that the cause was a lack of festive moments that usually call for popping a bottle.

“Champagne is quite associated with celebration, happiness, etc,” CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony said on an earlier earnings call, Business Insider reported at the time.

“Perhaps the current global situation, whether geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not prompt people to cheer and open bottles of champagne. I don’t really know.