Notes by Tom Nybroe: Burgundy, Red or White Wine Glass

Holmegaard's Notes series gives you three wine glasses of exactly the same height and asks you to choose by the bowl. This guide sets the Burgundy, red wine and white wine glasses side by side and explains which wines each shape is built for, so you can decide which pair, or which combination, belongs in your cupboard.

One height, three bowls

Tom Nybroe designed Notes as a family with a single fixed line: every glass stands 27 cm tall on a slender stem. Set a Burgundy, a red and a white glass next to one another and the rims sit level, which is unusual. Most stemware ranges step down in height as the bowl gets smaller, so a laid table ends up with a skyline of different rims. With Notes the variation happens below the rim, in the width and curve of the bowl, and the table reads as one calm horizontal.

That decision has a practical side. Because the height never changes, the glasses mix freely. A table with a white for the first course and a red for the main still looks ordered, and a cupboard shelf of mixed Notes glasses lines up neatly. All three are made of fine glass with a thin, light wall, and each is sold as a pair.

Holmegaard has been making glass in Denmark since 1825, when the glassworks was founded on Holmegaard Mose in Zealand, and the house has long worked with outside designers on its stemware. Nybroe also drew the lightweight Premium glasses for Rosendahl, covered in our piece on Tom Nybroe's lightweight series. Notes is the more formal of the two: taller, with deeper bowls tuned to particular wine styles.

Notes Burgundy, Red and White compared

The figures below come straight from the product specifications. Height is the same across the board; volume, bowl diameter and weight rise together from white to Burgundy.

The weight column is worth a second look. Even the largest glass is only 0.17 kg, so the step from white to Burgundy is felt more in the hand's sense of balance than in heft. The long stem carries the bowl well clear of the table, and the thin wall keeps all three feeling light.

Why a wider bowl suits Pinot Noir

The Notes Burgundy Glass 94 cl clear 2 pcs. is the glass for wines that need air. Its 12.5 cm bowl is the widest in the series, and a normal pour spreads into a broad, shallow pool rather than a deep column. That larger surface is the point. More of the wine is in contact with air, so aromatic compounds evaporate more readily and gather in the open space of the bowl above it, where your nose meets them before the first sip.

Pinot Noir is the classic case. It is a thin-skinned grape, typically light in tannin, and much of its character lives in the aroma: red fruit, earth, forest floor, spice. In a narrow glass those notes stay muted. In a wide Burgundy bowl they have room to open up. Nebbiolo, the grape behind Barolo and Barbaresco, is named in the Holmegaard description for the same reason. It is pale in colour but highly perfumed and benefits from time and oxygen, which the large surface supplies. Other complex, mature reds that tend to improve after a few minutes in the glass also belong here.

Pour less than you think. The 94 cl figure is the total volume, not a serving. The glass is designed to hold a modest measure with a lot of empty space above it, and that empty space is what does the work.

The red wine glass for structure and tannin

The Notes Red Wine Glass 81 cl clear 2 pcs. sits between the other two. At Ø 11 cm it is narrower than the Burgundy but still broad, with what Holmegaard describes as a good opening and a shape intended to bring out flavour in powerful, tannin-rich wines. The wines named for it tell you the brief: Bordeaux, Brunello di Montalcino, Ribera del Duero and many of the powerful reds from outside Europe.

These wines have more body and grip than Pinot Noir, and their aromas are less fragile. They do not need the widest possible surface; they need enough air to soften and a bowl that directs the wine sensibly onto the palate. The slightly tighter bowl also keeps a fuller-bodied wine more focused on the nose.

If you only want one red glass, this is the more versatile choice. It handles Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Tempranillo-based wines comfortably, and it will serve a Pinot Noir perfectly well, if with a little less lift than the Burgundy offers.

A narrower bowl for white wine

The Notes White Wine Glass 63 cl clear 2 pcs. is slender and tall, with the smallest bowl of the three at Ø 10 cm. The wall curves inwards towards the rim, which Holmegaard says preserves delicate fruit and directs the scent upwards to the nose.

A narrower bowl helps white wine in two ways. First, temperature: most whites are served chilled, and a smaller bowl means smaller pours and less exposed surface, so the wine has less opportunity to warm before you finish it. Topping up little and often from a cold bottle keeps each glassful fresh. The long stem matters here too, because it keeps your hand away from the bowl. Second, aroma: the fresh citrus, orchard fruit and floral notes of many whites are lighter than red wine aromatics, and the inward curve gathers them rather than letting them spread out and fade.

Fuller whites, such as oaked Chardonnay, will also sit happily in this glass. Some drinkers even pour those into the red wine glass for more air, which is easy with Notes because the rims stay level whichever glass you reach for.

Which pair to choose first

Start with the wine you open most often. If that is red Burgundy, Barolo or anything built on Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo, the Burgundy glass will make the most difference to what you taste. If your reds are mostly Bordeaux blends, Rioja, Ribera del Duero or bold reds from further afield, choose the red wine glass. If you drink mainly white, the white wine glass is the natural first pair.

For a two-glass setting, the most useful combination is the red wine glass and the white wine glass, which together cover almost everything on a dinner table. Add the Burgundy later for the bottles that reward it. Because every Notes glass is 27 cm tall, a set built up over time still looks like one design.

Care is the same for all three. They are dishwasher safe at a maximum of 55°C on a glass programme. Given the thin wall and long stem, place them securely in the rack so the bowls do not touch, and dry them with a lint-free cloth if you want the clearest finish.

To see Notes alongside Holmegaard's other stemware, tumblers and carafes, browse our Glassware collection.