The glass for white wine.

Modo is Schott Zwiesel's plainest modern line: a straight-lined bowl on a tall stem, 8 inches high, holding about 13.5 ounces. That is the classic white wine size, small enough to keep a cold pour cold and to gather the aroma of a Riesling or a Sauvignon Blanc.

It is made in Germany from Tritan crystal glass, the maker's lead-free glass with titanium in place of lead, designed to resist chipping and breaking. It goes in the dishwasher, and at this price a broken stem is a small annoyance.

Skip it if you like a rounded, traditional bowl. Modo is geometric, with straight sides, and it reads as contemporary on the table.

Vinum was designed in 1986 by Georg J. Riedel, tenth generation of the glassmaking family, as the affordable line of varietal-specific glasses. The Viognier/Chardonnay is its general white wine glass: an egg-shaped bowl of about 13 ounces on a 7.8 inch stem.

Riedel designs it to show off the freshness and mineral character of white wine. In practice it is a very good glass for unoaked Chardonnay, Chablis, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and most other crisp whites. It is machine made from crystal glass and dishwasher safe, like all Riedel glasses.

Skip it if you drink mostly big, oaked Chardonnay, which wants the larger Veritas bowl, or if you want one glass for red and white alike.

Oaked Chardonnay and white Burgundy have enough weight and aroma to crowd a small glass. The Veritas Oaked Chardonnay gives them room: a wide, egg-shaped bowl of about 22 ounces on an 8.5 inch stem.

Veritas is one of Riedel's lighter machine-made lines, made to be thinner and finer than Vinum while holding up to daily use and the dishwasher. The large bowl lets the aromas open without concentrating them too much, which is the point for a wine that has spent time in barrel.

Skip it if you drink crisp whites more than rich ones. In this bowl, a cold Riesling warms quickly and its lighter aromas get lost.

Definition is Spiegelau's thin machine-made line. The maker uses newer production methods to blow machine glass nearly as thin as handmade, with an extra-fine rim and a slender stem. The Universal holds 19 ounces and is made in Germany from lead-free crystal.

At 19 ounces it is in the right middle ground: roomy enough for Chardonnay and red wine, not so large that a pour of Sauvignon Blanc looks lost. If you would rather own one glass than two, it is the easiest one here to recommend.

Skip it if you want matched white and red glasses on a formal table, or if thin glass makes you nervous. It is lighter than most machine-made stems, and it feels it.

Gabriel-Glas was started by the Swiss wine critic René Gabriel, on the argument that one well-shaped glass can replace a cabinet of varietal shapes. The StandArt edition is machine made in Austria from lead-free crystal, drawn from one piece, so there are no joins between bowl, stem and foot.

The bowl holds about 510 ml, with a slight kink at its widest point that marks a natural pour line. For white wine, that gives room for an oaked Chardonnay while still suiting a crisp Riesling if you pour a little less. The maker says it is EU tested for clarity after 1,000 dishwasher cycles.

Skip it if you want a smaller, traditional white wine glass. And note that this six-pack is sold by Gabriel-Glas North America directly, which costs more per stem than the pairs.

Zalto blows its glasses by hand in Neunagelberg, Austria, in lead-free crystal. The Denk'Art White Wine glass holds 400 ml and stands 9.1 inches tall, with the angled bowl that marks the whole line. The rim is thin enough that the glass nearly disappears on the lip.

It is sized squarely for white wine: large enough for a white Burgundy, small and tight enough to gather the aromatics of a German Riesling or a Loire Sauvignon. It also works for sparkling wine. Zalto rates it dishwasher safe and in fact prefers the machine, because most breakage happens while drying by hand.

Skip it if you have a crowded sink, children or a habit of breaking stems. Nearly $80 each is the cost of a good bottle every time one goes. On Amazon it is sold by The Manufactory, a US Zalto retailer, rather than by Zalto itself.