Everyone has a selection of drink glasses in the cupboard used for serving drinks of water and different alcoholic beverages. However, it is also essential to have a selection of stemware in the china cabinet so that you can serve different kinds of cocktail and wines when you are hosting a party and serving a variety of drinks. Stemware refers to glasses for drinks that stand on a stem above the base. These glasses are usually made of glass, especially crystal, but they can also be made from ceramic and certain kinds of metals.

Wine glasses are the drink glasses used for serving wine. The stem of the glass is very important because when you take up the glass to sip the wine, you should hold it by the stem, rather than the bowl of the glass. This is so that you will not affect the temperature of the wine when you hold it in this manner because your hand does not come into contact with the wine. You can then set the wine glass down on sandstone coasters, glass coaster sets, or other custom coasters to keep the glass cool and to avoid spilling wine on any surfaces.

There are different shapes to the drink glasses used for serving wine. These are red wine glasses, white wine glasses and champagne flutes. Red wine glasses should be rounder and wider because this type of wine needs room to breathe. Even within this category there are two styles of glasses you can have. The Bordeaux glasses are taller and have a broad bowl, best suited for wines such as Merlot or Cabernet. Burgundy wine glasses are broader than the Bordeaux style to allow the aromas of the wines to accumulate inside the glass.

It is used mainly for delicate red wines, such as Pinot Noir, and directs the wine directly to the tip of your tongue when you tip it to take a sip. White wine glasses have narrower bowls that are often straight. These drink glasses have a smaller surface area so that the air will not warm the wine as quickly as it does in those with rounder bowls. Champagne flutes, while tall and narrow, have an opening that is narrower than the widest part of the bowl.

This helps to keep the champagne chilled for a longer period of time. They are usually characterized by a longer stem than you find on wine glasses. Drink glasses for cocktails are designed for serving martinis and margaritas. A cocktail glass has a cone-shaped bowl that forms a 90° angle with the base in the cross section. The base is flat and is connected to the bowl by a long stem.  There is also a variation of this style of glass in the double martini glass, which is taller and wider than the standard cocktail glass.

The brandy snifter is a short stemmed drink glass with the bowl being very wide at the bottom and narrow at the opening at the top. This type of glass has often been called a balloon glass because of the shape of the bowl, which is often too large to fit on standard paper coasters or table coasters. Custom coasters may be necessary. The large surface in the bottom of the glass helps the aromas of the brandy to evaporate to the top where it is trapped inside by the narrow opening.

Then there are shot glasses for drinking liqueurs or shooter. These drink glasses are designed to hold only an ounce or two of the beverage. They are often used to measure out ounces of liquor to be mixed with different kinds of pop or water to make an alcoholic drink. If you do or plan to do any amount of entertaining, you should have a selection of these drink glasses in your china cabinet so that you can use the right one to serve drinks to your guests.