“Which kind of glass would you like – Glencairn or Classic Malts”? That question, by malt mate Keith Wood, ignited a thought process in my mind. I was sitting in his dramming den, relaxing in a comfy leather armchair, when he hit me with the question of all questions. Up until this point, the “classic”, specially designed and sturdy Glencairn crystal glass had been my go-to whisky glass I always reached for. The first time Keith asked me that question I, naturally, wanted a Glencairn. On my second visit, I tried a Classic Malts glass for the first time after a long break. It was certainly a very good whisky glass and I enjoyed my drams from it. And then my mind started to wonder: Which one is really the best whisky glass for me? Avid readers of my blog will know I used a Classic Malts-style glass for my first couple of reviews, I actually don’t remember why I switched.
Thus it is high time I methodically compared some of the different kinds of whisky glasses I have at home with different malts to see if there are differences, and if so, how big they are. And, just maybe, I’ll choose a new standard whisky glass going forward. This test of course only reflects my own opinion and other people might come to different conclusions, but I’ll try to keep the descriptions as universally usable as possible.
Deliberately leaving out all kinds of fancy one-off branded glassware and other glasses I know not to be very good (the smaller half-size “Glencairn-style” ones you often get at distilleries come to mind) I chose four classic glasses to compare and added a fifth, odd-shaped one as a sort of “control-glass” that just has to be different.
Now, you might be asking why I didn’t include new bespoke whisky glasses, which have appeared on the market recently. The reason is simple: Without trying them first my inclination to shell out 20+€ (even more including shipping) for the next hot thing on the glassware market is rather low, when standard glasses, which work perfectly fine, are between 3€ and 6€ (and sometimes “free”), so I don’t have any of those to test, sorry. Besides, this should really be a test of classic, well-known, widely used styles of whisky glassware.