Many of France’s top champagne houses are no longer choosing traditional flutes to serve their sparkling wine but are switching to white wine glasses instead, according to the world’s leading glassware manufacturer, Georg Riedel.

The Austrian “glass guru” was quoted in The Drinks Business magazine as saying that “The Champenois are starting to serve their sparklers in white wine glasses as the larger surface areas give more aromas, complexity and a creamier texture. Flutes are too narrow and don’t allow the aroma and richness of the champagne to shine as there isn’t enough air space,” he said.

Mr Riedel went on to say that flutes are often mistakenly filled to the top, leaving the wine no room to breathe.

“Ideally, a flute should only be half full, or, better still, a third full in order to release a champagne’s aromatic potential.”

However, speaking from a slightly less scientific stand point, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, speaking at a Master of Wine event in London just before Christmas, stressed the need for champagne to retain the flute to differentiate the sparkling product from still wine.

“It is not only a wine, but a symbol of love and generosity and if we forget that, we are dead,” he stated.