I was recently enjoying a glass of white wine and, when finished, asked to switch to a glass of red. The host said “Oh, let me rinse that glass for you first.” I stated that it was not necessary, but he insisted that he ‘freshen’ my glass.

While this is no great wine faux pas, this isn’t generally helpful. Let’s look at a couple of reasons why.

First, when switching from one wine to another, if you rinse a wine glass with water, you might actually leave enough water in the glass to slightly dilute the incoming wine. Again, not generally a big deal, but if you are using a small glass or being served ‘just a taste’ then any residual water in the glass could affect the taste of the wine.

And, speaking of the taste of the wine, it’s also possible that other harsh flavors from the water, including chlorine, could also affect the aromas and flavors of a wine.

So, if you are transitioning from white wine to a red wine, its’ probably not necessary to do any rinsing of the glass in between. But, if you are moving from a red wine to a white wine, you should probably just pour a splash of the white wine in your glass, twirl it around and dump it. This will remove enough of the red wine color from the glass so that you don’t end up with a rosé colored glass of white wine.

Rinsing with a splash of wine is another way to clear any sediment from the bottom of a wine glass or to clear any off-flavors of a flawed wine.

Swirling a splash of wine in your glass and then dumping it is also a good idea if you’ve just removed the wine glass from the dishwasher or off the shelf to remove any soap residue or dust.

So, skip the water rinse of your wine glass so that you get the greatest enjoyment of that next glass of wine. Cheers!