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The question

What's the right level for pouring into a wineglass?

The answer

Always pour more into your boss's glass than yours, especially prior to asking for a raise.

The serious answer is roughly one-third of the way up. You want to leave the upper two-thirds empty to allow the wine to coat the glass as you swirl like a pretentious snob. This enhances aroma perception by creating a larger surface area for evaporation.

It depends on the glassware, of course. Back in the day, when we all used thick-walled bar mitzvah glasses, the ones with the little round bowls about the size of a tangerine, you had to fill to the rim or you'd risk having the wine evaporate on you before it hit your lips.

Most of those fancy modern Riedel wineglasses from Austria, which have become de rigueur at fancy dinner parties, are smartly designed so that you pour up to the widest part of the bowl. Isn't that easy?

The Flavour Principle, by Lucy Waverman and Beppi Crosariol, was named best Canadian Food & Drinks Book in the 2014 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Published by HarperCollins.

E-mail your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the Wine & Spirits newsletter and on The Globe and Mail website.

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