Definition: drinking wine in the past

Nowadays, we take care to choose the right vessel in which to drink a particular type of wine, but what was the situation in the medieval Alps? With no texts available setting out the rules to be followed at that time, we have to examine the objects themselves: goblets, cups, glasses and other vessels discovered in cellars and then placed in museums. Wine was transferred from the barrel to the throat via all kinds of containers. In the 15th century, a small flask was sufficient. The drinking vessel (cypus) made of heather wood, which often appears, and stemmed cups made of turned walnut, ash, beech or maple wood were all woods that lent themselves to lathe work. Some cyphi enhance certain tableware. Many containers are made of glass. These drinking vessels can be found in the homes of city dwellers of a certain socio-economic status, in conventional places such as the Grand Saint-Bernard hospice and in inns.
At that time, there was a rather glaring omission: there were no larger vessels for holding wine drawn from barrels, pots, channe or other ewers. Among the explanations for this are that either people did without them or none appear in the inventories that have been found.