French luxury crystal glassmaker Baccarat is hoping to revolutionise the experience of drinking wine with a new design that promises to settle the age-old argument between alcohol and the grape.

The tulip-shaped glass, with a wide flat base and a vertical “chimney”, will prevent the alcohol from overpowering the aroma of wine when the glass is swirled.

The design prevents the usual large-scale swirling movement which oxidises the wine and burns off the delicate aromas, and retains the subtlety in the vintages, the firm said.

“This is revolutionary. This is a design that is geared towards revealing the wine,” Baccarat general manager for Greater China Francois Mainetti told AFP on Friday.

He said the balance between the alcohol and the aroma in wine is as important as yin and yang in Chinese philosophy.

“It’s just like a balance between fire and water, the glass balances the fire that comes from the alcohol and the aroma in the water component,” Mainetti said.

Priced at $116, the glasses went on sale in France earlier this year and were launched in China and Hong Kong last month.