(CNN) - Sonic decanters, slip-on wine thermometers, devices to pour your wine without pulling the cork -- the list of fancy wine accessories is growing apace, as global wine enthusiasts look for newer, better ways to appreciate their favorite tipple.

But James Molesworth, Senior Editor at Wine Spectator magazine says expensive gadgets are largely unnecessary. "You don't need much else besides a simple decanter, corkscrew and stemware."

The inclusion of the latter -- quality stemware, which can easily cost upwards US$100 per glass -- is becoming a popular choice in many of the world's leading high-end restaurants.

"It's mirrored the growth of lifestyle dining," Molesworth tells CNN. "It's part of the theater and expectation, at a certain level and at three-star restaurants. It's the same way you would expect to be served fine china and impressive flatware."

Same wine, different glass

Beyond aesthetics, the promise delivered by some luxury glassware companies -- like Austria-based Riedel -- is that the actual design of the glass can alter the taste of the wine.

Since 1958, Riedel has produced specially-designed glasses, tailored to appreciate over 300 types of wines and grape varieties.

The idea is, if you have a bottle of say, a Pinot Noir, and pour it into a few different glasses, the taste of that wine will vary across the different-shaped glasses.

As Georg Riedel, the 10th generation owner of the family business, explains: "The glass is a tool made to deal with the multiple flavor contributors in wine -- like fruit, neutrality and acidity -- and balance them."

The 'architecture' of a glass

Each Riedel glass adheres to three main design parameters -- the size, the shape and the opening.

The size controls how much air is in contact with the wine, the shape determines how the liquid flows to the opening, and the rim's diameter influences how fast the wine flows, and then, how it lands on the palette.

He says even an average drinker's palate can appreciate the differences in taste.

"We belong to the category of mammals and have a brain. We're naturally drawn to sucrose. The sweeter something is, the more we like it," Riedel says.

So, does shape really matter?

While taste is arguably a subjective experience, scientists at the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, recently weighed in on the matter.

Using an imaging device called a sniff-cam, Professor Kohji Mitsubayashi and his team mapped out the distribution of ethanol vaporizing from differently-shaped glasses.