Schott Zwiesel

Choose by use first, and only then by series. Banquet is the classic hospitality glass with a sturdy foot and bowls of 36.8 and 47.5 cl, built to be ordered by the crate and topped up for years. Ivento is the more modern line with a slightly curved bowl in 34.9 and 50.6 cl, the smaller size for white and the larger for red. Classico goes further up, to 81.4 cl, and that format is meant for burgundy and other aromatic grapes.

For the home there are series supplied in fours rather than sixes, such as For You and Fave, with the same Tritan quality in a slightly softer shape and a smaller box. Anyone looking for a single special glass ends up at Diva, an 84 cl burgundy bowl that comes in pairs in gift packaging. To see how these bowls compare with other brands, put them side by side with the red wine glasses and the white wine glasses, where every house is sorted by size.

The nice thing about a brand with this breadth is that you can serve an entire menu from one design line. The Beer Basic glasses have an engraved fill line at 30 cl, which is compulsory in hospitality when serving beer and which you also find on the other beer glasses. The Finesse champagne bowl has an effervescence point: a minute rough spot on the base to which the carbon dioxide attaches, so that one neat string of pearls rises instead of random bubbles.

The heavier whisky glasses of 33 to 40 cl take exactly one large ice cube, which is what you need for an old fashioned that opens up slowly. And if you would rather pour bubbles, a french 75 is the recipe for which a narrow bowl with an effervescence point makes the greatest difference. The 6 and 8 cl shot glasses close off that row, and in the Netherlands are best known as jenever glasses.

Tritan was developed with the dishwasher in mind. The glass stays clear for longer because it is less sensitive to the alkali in detergent, and the rim and stem are reinforced against the knocks that are unavoidable in a rack. That does not mean anything goes: stems resting against each other still break.

Use a short glass programme and keep the temperature moderate. If a dull haze remains, that is lime from hard water and not damage to the glass; a dash of vinegar in the rinse water solves it. For narrow bowls and decanters a glass brush with a soft head gets you further than a cloth, certainly with a decanter where your hand cannot reach the bottom.

Watch the name as you look further, because Zwiesel Glas is a different brand with its own collection, even though both come from the same Bavarian town. If you want decanters, mixing jugs and pouring jugs from the same makers, you will find them under decanters. And if you would rather search by shape than by brand, the collections in the menu alongside sort everything by bowl and capacity, so you can put Schott Zwiesel straight next to other houses and compare size for size.