What glass is this?

The only stupid question is the one you fail to ask... but let us not mince hairs.

Brandy is usually served in a snifter, this familiar stemmed, low-slung, bell-shaped glass thingum. One effect of the design is pointing the aromas directly into one's nose, and should never be filled beyond the widest part—the snifter, not the nose... though a word to the wise should be sufficient.


That's why a little brandy (relatively speaking) is often served in a large snifter (also relatively speaking). Small snifters (aka brandy glasses) are for pubs, cafés, discount shops, farm supply store holiday fêtes, where the focus is necessarily some other kind of beverage and/or aroma—or the avoidance of aroma, in the case of the farm supply store. Of course, an overly large snifter is also a cause for much embarrassment, unless inhabited by well cared for fish.

The possession of a nice snifter—one which is 5 or so inches at its widest diameter—will hopefully induce one to occasionally languish with a jigger of decent Cognac or Armagnac, without audience, pretext or pretense. In these solitary moments, one's senses open to something very old, very complex, yet unmediated by the maws, the haws and guffaws of our noisy world.

Easy, as they say, does it.