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Aromatic intensity is how wine grabs you, how powerful is its smell and its taste. It is very easy to assess, even for a novice. As with perfume, a wine can be discreet or very up front. In the language of wine connoisseurs, it can be described as "closed", in other words not very expressive, or it can be "open".

The force with which a wine expresses itself is to a great extent linked to the shape of the glass. If you smell the same wine in a plain flat bottomed glass and then in a glass designed to magnify aromas (the Open Up and Arom’Up ranges for example), you will realise to what extent a glass can become an aroma booster!

Wine also benefits from being moved around in the glass. Gently swirling for a few seconds can have spectacular effects. Firstly, the wine takes in quite a large amount of oxygen which acts chemically on the aromatic molecules, then the rotational movement helps the aromas burst out from the glass. Here again, swirling wine in an Open Up or Arom’Up glass will give you an unforgettable sensory experience that you could never get with a standard glass …

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Gooseberry, strawberry, cherry for red wines; lemon, peach, grapefruit for white wines ... Wines are becoming ever more distinct in character and increasingly incline towards fruit aromas.

Chef & Sommelier has developed two designs intended for these contemporary wines. Entitled Fruity White and Fruity Red (Arom’Up range), they favour a relaxed approach to wine. Now for the first time, it's possible to select a glass based not on the wine's provenance, its "appellation" or its grape variety, but on its taste.

For wine tasting, the Fruity glasses have a definite advantage. With optimal positioning of the oxygenation surface in the centre of the body of the glass, even the most volatile aromas are brought out to full advantage. If you need convincing, get yourself some tasting glasses, including Fruity White, and serve a young Sauvignon based white wine, for example an Entre-Deux-Mers. Make sure you fill the Fruity glass just up to where the bowl of the glass curves. Citrus, lemon and grapefruit first, and then more exotic and subtle aromas such as passion fruit will emerge with more clarity and more intensity.

So, if you want a generous wine overflowing with fruit and sensuality at apéritif time, invite Fruity along too ...

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It's rare to find a great vintage that doesn't display the aromatic benefit of new barrels. Vanilla, chocolate, caramel and coffee bring sensory complexity and a touch of elegance that make all the difference.

Chef et Sommelier has designed a glass to accentuate the aromatic intensity of woody wines, and more generally, their tertiary aroma, in other words aromas linked to how the wine was produced.

This glass, from the Arom’Up, range is called Oaky. It comes in two sizes: 41cl for white wines, 47cl for reds. You can measure the power of the Oaky Red glass by organising a wine tasting.. Select a Californian Cabernet Sauvignon aged in new barrels and several glasses a third full (up to where the angle of the bowl of the glass changes in the case of Oaky).

Oaky will reveal the roasted, toasty, sometimes liquorice aromas with much more clarity. Oaky's secret is a wide oxygenation surface located low in the bowl of the glass and the ideal breathing space for tertiary aromas to be fully expressed. Quite simply, a glass with taste!