Chef & Sommelier wine glasses: which ones to buy

Chef & Sommelier is a French glassware brand from Arc International, made with restaurants in mind. That is why you have probably drunk from one: they are clear, tough and survive the dishwasher night after night. The question for home is simple: which range, and is it worth it over a handblown glass?

What makes them different: Kwarx

Many Chef & Sommelier glasses are made of Kwarx, a glass material developed with Arc's research centre. The promise is clarity that stays bright after years of washing, and real resistance to breakage. In practice that means a glass you don't have to baby, which is exactly what a busy dining room needs.

The range to know: Open Up

Open Up is the brand's best-known range and the first made in Kwarx. Its distinctive angular bowl gives the wine more surface to breathe, and it won a French industrial design award, the Janus de l'Industrie, at its launch. The shapes worth knowing:

• Universal Tasting, 40 cl: one glass for almost every wine. The one I would buy first.
• Pro Tasting, 32 cl: smaller, made for tastings and classes with short pours.
• Round, 37 cl: a rounder take on the same idea.
• Effervescent, 20 cl: a flute.

What I would pour in which glass

• Most whites, rosés and lighter reds: the Universal Tasting.
• Big reds and rich, oaked whites: the Universal Tasting too, with a smaller pour so the wine has room to breathe.
• Champagne and other sparkling wine: skip the flute. Pour it into the Universal Tasting, a third full. The bubbles last, and the aromas finally have room. Most sommeliers serve good Champagne this way now.

Chef & Sommelier vs handblown glasses

A handblown universal glass, the thin, light style made famous by Zalto, feels finer in the hand and at the lip. It is also fragile and far more expensive. Chef & Sommelier glasses are machine-made, a little thicker, much tougher and much cheaper. For everyday drinking, dinner parties and anywhere glasses get washed often, they are the smarter buy. Keep a pair of handblown glasses for the special bottles.

For a deeper comparison of universal glasses, see my guide site, Universal Wine Glasses.

Questions people ask