Anyone who has been travelling with me around the wineries will know that I am a glassware fiend. I just love my glassware! For instance, I have never been as excited (by glass accoutrements) as I was when I discovered that I could combine my passions for Champagne, Christmas decorations & glassware all in one superb Waterford ’12 Days of Christmas’ package. (Thanks Robyn!) And I have been using my Plumm glasses for over a decade now. I still am a fan.

A superb tasting glass

I first noticed Plumm when I was tasting at cellar door at Yarra Yering in the Yarra Valley in 2010. The wine was as stunning as ever, but the tasting glasses were just plain sexy.  Although, I am a great fan of Riedel, this Plumm tasting glass has a shorter stem and a longer bowl. It is a larger version of the standard tasting glass used by the industry. The larger bowl means that the wine gets plenty of air and the extra length helps lift the aromas .

However, is also just perfect for those big swirls. Those which often land over my shirt. Or even worse, some poor unsuspecting & undeserving sot beside me.  (Ever wonder why I wear BLACK all the time!) The shorter stem means better stability. Which is a bonus, as I have been known to knock over filled glasses on tasting panels around Australia. So, finding a glass with that solved my clumsiness with such panache immediately caught my attention.

The initial ranges

I was lucky enough to meet the team behind Plumm and discover the thinking behind their ranges.

At first glance, the 5 other glass styles designed by the team from the Australian owned Plumm, have a more curvaceous elegance & grace to them than the tasting glass I first saw (which is in fact called the ‘RED or WHITE’). The team’s message is that ‘Five wine glasses are all you need’! They have found the best two shapes for whites & reds with one for fizz after 18 months of global research. Interestingly, they did expect to have a range with more shapes. However, as their research progressed, they discovered that these glasses were coming up, well, plum, each time.

To keep it simple, they even have named the glass styles ‘WHITEa’, ‘WHITEb’, ‘REDa’ … etc.  Those glasses to be used for lighter styled, often aromatic, wines have narrower apertures. The glass used for the lighter reds resembles a poppy seed pod shape with it’s rim curling back out. A recurved rim.  The glasses for the fuller bodied wines have the wider opening making the wines seem more balanced as they roll around the palate.

Of course, there is also a stemless selection. Those can do fun spinning tricks on the table without tipping over (until they met me that was!).  For those who love the great outdoors, Plumm also offer unbreakable polycarbonate replicas of most of their styles including stemless in the Plumm Outdoor range. While you cannot disguise that the outdoor range are not fine crystal, they serve their purpose with style.  And just for those who are after that touch of luxury of fine crystal, there is the Plumm Handblown Vintage crystal versions which are taller and lighter.

The new ranges

Plumm have added an Everyday Glass range and a very stylish Three range. The Three range narrows the choice to just three bolder shapes that can be used for Sommeliers. Their No. 3 is a goblet shape that suits either Pinot Noir or Chardonnay.

There is no denying that Riedel are the global market leaders with their wide range of purposeful shapes. I mean, I love the fact that I can get a glass specifically for drinking my Fino. There is always room in the market for more wine glasses designed by wine people, to get the best out of wine. The Plumm story is one that has capture our interest, while the understated elegance has captured our hearts.

They are available in all major outlets now, but are still available via their website www.plumm.com.

This article was first published 14 October, 2010 and updated 14 October, 2021