16
Aug 2026Why Alsace wine glasses have a green stem
You come across them at almost every French brocante: glasses with a rounded bowl on a strikingly green stem. They usually stand there by the six or the twelve, in a crate, and you walk straight past. A shame, because they are among the most enjoyable glasses to use at home.
From Alsace, not from Paris
In France the glass is called a verre d'Alsace, or roemer. It belongs to Alsace, the region along the Rhine between Strasbourg and Colmar. That is where the wines it was made for come from: Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris and Sylvaner.
The shape originally comes from the German and Dutch roemer tradition. A broad, almost spherical bowl on a sturdy stem, often with applied prunts. When Alsace passed back and forth between France and Germany, that glassmaking tradition simply travelled with it.
Why is the stem green?
There are two explanations, and both are partly right.
The practical one: the wines of Alsace are pale in colour, sometimes almost water clear. A green stem gives the glass a greenish cast, which makes the wine look fuller and fresher. In the days when wine was more often cloudy, that helped.
The historical one: old glass naturally took on a green tinge from the iron in the sand. That was once a flaw. Later it became a characteristic, and glassmakers began imitating it deliberately. What was a fault turned into a style.
Thin or thick, and how to tell them apart
You will meet two families. The refined version has a slender, twisted or smooth stem and a light bowl. The sturdy version has a thick, solid stem and is noticeably heavier in the hand. The latter is usually younger, from the sixties and seventies, and often by Luminarc.
When buying, check the rim of the bowl. That is where most of the small chips are, and your finger will find them more reliably than your eye. How we judge and describe that is set out on vintage condition.
What do you use them for?
For Riesling and Gewürztraminer, of course, but that is far from all. The wide bowl works just as well for a light red wine, for water with mint, for a spritz or for a dessert. They look lovely mixed in with other glasses on the table: that is precisely the charm of vintage, you do not need a matching set of twelve.
Washing by hand is preferable. The stem is the weak point, and in the dishwasher they knock against each other all too easily.
Have a look
Browse our vintage Alsace wine glasses, or look through all the vintage wine glassware. More of a bubbles person? Then read From coupe to flute.
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We describe signs of use and photograph the flaws too.
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