Fire and Vine – a special exhibit celebrating the story of glass and wine at the Corning Museum of Glass

Did you ever stop to count how many wine glasses are in your cabinets? Are they brimming with flutes, coupes, stemless, burgundy, chardonnay and port wine glasses? You name the wine, you’ve got a glass for it. Many of us who love wine believe it’s better to enjoy the nuances of this luscious liquid when it is served in the proper glass.

Some of my favorite wine glasses are champagne coupes from my grandmother’s era. I often like to think about the people who have enjoyed drinking wine out of these glasses, especially the champagne coupes with hollow stems – the bubbles float up the stem into the bowl of the coupe. Just thinking about the toasts that have been made with these glasses, engagements, weddings, graduations, makes me tingle all over.

Now imagine being able to view dozens of wine glasses from around the world, along with the jugs, pitchers and bottles that held magnificent wines and hear the stories of how the glass intertwined with the wine to for all sorts of occasions and celebrations. Beginning on July 3, 2021 you can do just that by visiting Fire and Vine: The Story of Glass and Wine, a special exhibit at the Corning Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG). The museum is located within New York State’s Finger Lakes Wine Country, so what better place to celebrate wine and glass? According to the CMoG website the exhibit presents  the art, history, and science of how glass touches wine as it travels from the grape, to the bottle, and to the cup on our table, the exhibit is largely drawn from the Museum’s own holdings, the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass. Katherine Larson, curator of Ancient Glass at CMoG coordinated the exhibit.

Fire and Vine highlights wine vessels from the Museum’s permanent collection and from the collection of the Museum’s Rakow Research Library which are usually kept under lock and key. CMoG announced that the exhibit includes “a rare 2,000-year-old fragment of cameo glass depicting a grape harvest, a still-sealed bottle of wine found in an 18th-century shipwreck off the coast of England, a 17th-century Italian document describing an ‘almost unbreakable glass jar’ that could prevent wine from spoiling, and a set of antique French hydrometers for measuring the alcohol content of wine.”

While enjoying the exhibit, you can view a glassblowing demonstration and enjoy the experience of making your own piece of glass. Since you will be in one of the most popular wine regions in the United States, you will want to visit some of the more than 100 Finger Lakes wineries. You will find an updated list of these wineries on the Select Registry website.

Do you love the idea of pouring your special wine into a gorgeous glass? Is your favorite wine glass a treasure passed down in your family or a brand new glass?