Originally Posted by
nerd
I'm pretty sure the shape of the glass makes the wine taste better by the same degree that a paper vs. styrofoam plate makes a burger taste better.
Even more so. A LOT more so. The fact is, well over half of the flavor sensation of fine wine is in the bouquet (a.k.a the nose, the aromas). And there is all sorts of objective analysis that the size and shape of the glass makes a massive difference in terms of how much those aromas are concentrated so that the taster's olfactory sense gets them.
The type of plate you rest your burger on does not have such an effect, because when you eat your burger, it is no longer on your plate. When you drink your wine, you are drinking it directly from the glass, and usually, your nose is either inside of, or directly above the rim of the glass. The glass matters a lot in terms of capturing and concentrating the nose of the wine.