“It’s amazing how the glass you choose changes a wine,” says Penelope Naish of Black Estate Wines.

So it might be time to upgrade our mismatched old tumblers, then.

But at home, is it best to opt for sturdy stemless glasses which won’t get broken at a winter party or summer BBQ, or go for the widest, showiest, bowl-like numbers you can find?

We asked the managers of three bars and restaurants, and our resident wine columnist, how they pick the wine glasses they buy for their own homes.

READ MORE: * How do you really read a restaurant wine list? * Why you should never drink champagne out of flutes * Riedel makes wine glass specifically for Central Otago pinot noir

Callum Ross, manager at Lilian, Auckland

To be honest, for me and wine, I can drink it out of a water glass.

But my favourite would be the Riedel burgundy glass. It’s a good-looking, reasonably durable glass. In a restaurant I would use stemmed glasses, to keep [the wine] away from the heat and hands at the table.

But at home at a BBQ, it’s stemless for sure. Stemmed ones are always getting broken!

Hannah Wells, co-owner and manager of Puffin Wine Bar, Wellington

My favourite is the Gabriel Glass designed by Rene Gabriel of Switzerland. I've always loved it, and we use them at Puffin. They are designed so that you can experience any wine fully and completely from bouquet to palate, essentially a universal wine (and even beer) glass.

It's elegant in design and feel. Because Puffin can be a fast-paced and energetic place, these glasses allow us to bring a wine to someone swiftly and in all its glory. I also have them at home.

Penelope Naish, restaurant manager at Black Estate Wines, Waipara, North Canterbury

We use Riedel glasses and always serve our pinot noir in the burgundy glass, and our chardonnay in the montrachet glass - which is especially designed for chardonnay because of its texture and weight.

We prefer stemmed glasses over stemless because you don’t want to warm up the wine with your hands.

There is a debate about the science behind whether the glass makes a difference, but I would recommend people at home tasting the same wine in two different glasses and see what they think.

Jonathan Brookes, wine importer at The Last Drop Wines, and wine columnist for Stuff and Sunday magazine

One thing I always insist on is having a wine glass with the stem. I don't like un-stemmed glasses. It's more practical to have a stem because you can hold your glass easily, and it's easy to swirl wine around it. I’m always swirling my glass to taste the wine that I'm drinking.

And also, if I'm having an animated conversation with whoever I'm having dinner with, or having a drink with at home, I like the fact that with a stemmed glass, I can do that and easily hold on to my glass – as opposed to a tumbler or an unstemmed wine glass where I feel like I'm throwing the wine all over the place when I gesture towards things.

But then beyond that, I'm really quite unfussy. And I actually really like simple small tasting-style glasses. For my own personal use, I really find big, ostentatious bowl glasses and stuff like that really off-putting and uncomfortable to drink from.

So other than having a stem that I can kind of hold on to easily with my fingers, I'm happy with pretty much any glass and in fact, in some ways, the smaller and more simple, the better.