As British wine master Jancis Robinson so perfectly puts it:

…a wine glass is not just the final container for wine, but an important instrument for communicating it to the human senses.

Traditional wine glasses have three components – a bowl, a stem and a foot – and let’s be honest, you can drink from them however you please.

After all, when you buy that bottle of Boekenhoutskloof’s The Chocolate Block, it’s yours and no one can tell you how to consume it.

[It’s so good we will even excuse you chugging it down in a few sips.]

However, if you are working your way into the role of an amateur wine enthusiast, you should by now be holding your wine glass in the correct manner.

Food&Wine‘s Wine Wise Guy Anthony Giglio jotted down three common wine-grip fails, and the one reason why you really should avoid them all:

The “Housewives Of” Hold:

After over-pouring your over-oaked Merlot into your oversized etched-crystal goblet, wrap your hand around the bowl, just above the stem, and fan your fingers out in such a way that your 3-carat diamond ring mesmerizes [sic] friends and frenemies alike. Sweep your hand back and forth expansively, while giving those friends/frenemies a tour of your new 8 000-square-foot McMansion.

Now take a sip of your wine. Warm, isn’t it? But at least everyone is impressed by your diamonds.

Harsh.

The “Hail Mary Pass” Hold:

You’re trying to impress the wine-obsessed girl you’re out with so in an effort to look both sophisticated and faux-interested in “this, like, amazing Chardonnay” she’s yammering about, you grab your glass like it’s a football you’re about to fling across the length of the restaurant, fingers wrapped around the bowl like it’s pigskin. You are Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers heaving a 61-yard, record-breaking, game-winning touchdown.

Now take a sip of your wine. Warm, right? Bonehead.

Bro, come on.

The “Masterpiece Theatre” Hold:

You are Alistair Cooke, standing on your bearskin rug in front of your walk-in fireplace, and your butler proffers a glass of weak-looking Claret. You seize the glass, turning your palm skyward, intercepting the stem between your ring and middle fingers, and cup the bowl delicately-yet-firmly from beneath. You close your eyes and inhale deeply, filled with self-satisfaction and the take a sip.

Ah…hm. What’s this? Warm wine?

“Perhaps you might want to hold the glass by the stem, sir,” your butler murmurs. “It does also prevent oily fingerprints.”

So how should you hold it?

By them stem, of course. That’s what it’s there for.

[source:foodandwine]