Probably the first glass I owned were two Glencairn glasses that came with a Zuidam gift set. I made the horrible mistake of putting these in the dishwasher and this absolutely making them useless. So lesson one I learned is : do not wash your whisky glassware in the dishwasher.
The next glass I got was a glass I picked up in a local store just to get any whisky glass. As you see it broke on me and now it's useless too.
The I went to the same store again and got a small glass. The idea being that this was the only one available at that store. No intelligence yet in my buying strategy. It is rather small but contains just a cute amount to get a feel for the dram. Sturdy little glass, but not meant for nosing or tasting in any serious manner. Rather like it for everyday enjoying a dram without fussing over making notes.
My first serious glass was one I ordered from the Bruichladdich online shop together with a Bruichladdich book for making tasting notes. At this point in time I had decided to start my whisky nerd development in a serious manner and all the guys online, like Ralfy, were using this. So it must be good. YouTube movies by Ralfy deepened this believe. Still clueless why these glasses are so good. Still learning.
The next glasses I got were a set of two in a Bruichladdich gift set. These glasses are featured in the laddiemp2 YouTube webcasts by Bruichladdich. The idea behind these glasses is the large surface area above the liquid allowing oxidation of your dram while still, sorta, tapering towards the top thus concentrating the smell.
After I watched John Glaser of Compass Box on YouTube explaining about his drams, I saw he used only, what looked like, small wine glasses. What were those? Why was he using them! So I got to a store and bought the appropriate glassware to try those. One came with a lid. I figured this would prevent smells from escaping the glass before I would be able to inhale them.
I was starting to get the idea that there must be an industry standard for nosing smell components. This sparked the nerd / engineer in me and I used the ISO standards website to search for industry standards for tasting and smelling congeners. The standard I found is the ISO 3591:1977. Please see this blog entry about it. I have looked for it in stores but could not really find the glass that was indicated in this standard.
The I walked into a store in Haarlem (Netherlands) one day and spotted the glass I was looking for. In the blue version too, so to not influence the tasting and nosing experience by getting a bias based on the look of the dram.
I have been using this glass ever since because it absolutely gave me more smell then I had experienced with any other glass. The glencairn glass is close second! Sometimes I use the lid. I do this when I know I'm nosing "light" drams that benefit from concentrating the congeners over a period of time.
The other glasses I own are mostly gifts from family and friends.
A Jack Daniels shot glass.
A 100 year anniversary glass from the famous grouse
A glen talloch tumbler.
All this glassware has a purpose for enjoying a dram. Depending on the temperature, location, mood you are in, intension etc. you pick your glassware and enjoy your dram. For me the ISO 3591:1977 glass is my glass. I'm an engineer. I abide by standards, so I feel the nerdy need to comply!
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