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On 13-Feb-2005, (Cwdjrx _) wrote:

> Yes, I read the Gourmet article, and the conclusions are just about what
> I expected. I concluded long ago that the claims made by certain glass
> makers were a lot of hot air with no scientific basis. Even the one
> proper double blind scientific experiment arranged for by a major glass
> maker failed to prove that the shape of his glasses made any important
> difference.
>
> One thing that can influence the perception of the wine is the weight of
> the bowl of the glass. For example, you can pour cool, fairly young,
> cellar-temperature red wine into both a very heavy cut crystal glass and
> a paper-thin one. with both glasses starting out at warm room
> temperature. The temperature of the wine is hardly changed in the ultra
> thin glass and the wine may appear a bit thin and tannic without much
> bouquet. However the very heavy glass at warm room temperature very
> rapidly warms the wine considerably, and it may appear much better
> balanced with much more bouquet. On the other hand, if one uses a
> chilled sweet white wine at the proper serving temperature, it may show
> best in the ultra thin glass that does not change the temperature of it
> much. In the heavy crystal glass, the white rapidly warms and shows less
> well. The moral of this story is that if you use very heavy crystal, it
> should be at about the correct temperature for the wine, and the wine
> also shold be at the correct temperature. For paper-thin crystal, you do
> not have to worry as much about the temperature of the glass, but the
> wine temperature still is important. A clever sales person probably
> could "prove" that either their heavy cut crystal or paper-thin glass is
> best by taking advantage of the above. The same sorts of tricks can be
> done on the ear also. It is a well known that if you want to sell a
> loudspeaker system that gives the most profit, you have it playing just
> a bit louder than the comparison speaker system with less profit margin.
> It must be just a slight increase that is not obvious. By far the most
> people will pick the speaker system that is playing slightly louder when
> the quality of the two speaker systems is not very different.
>
> I have drunk wine form very ornate glasses from the 1800s. They usually
> work well. You cannot see the wine in some of them, but then you can
> always judge the color of the wine in a small tasting glass used to
> judge if the opened bottle of wine is fit to serve. I usually like to do
> this, even when using clear glasses for serving. Old or new, there are a
> few shapes that can cause practical problems. A glass that is very small
> and too full makes it very difficult to swirl the wine. Likewise, for a
> very tall and narrow flute. On the other extreme wine is difficult to
> swirl in a saucer shaped glass without making a mess. I have found that
> a truly superior wine makes itself very apparent without a lot of fuss
> about glass shape, size, etc. You do not have to try hard to know that
> it is great. The problems come with young wines that are not ready and
> poor, thin wines that you have to struggle with to make out much fruit
> or complexity at all. If all else fails, you can pour some wine in a
> large brandy sniffer, seal the top with your hand or some plastic film,
> and shake it very well. Then you may be able to smell a trace of
> something if it is there at all. But such extreme measures are for
> evaluaton of new wines that one might want to buy to age - not for wines
> to be served with the dinner.

Let me first state that I sell wine retail, along with Riedel and Spiegelau
crystal. That being said....

While I agree that there is a good bit of "play" in the marketing aspect of
both companies (especially if you look at the 30+ different Vinum series
Riedel stems), I have yet to see anyone ever NOT prefer the Riedel stem for
a particular wine when compared to any other. For example, pour a taste of
a cabernet (or cabernet based wine) into your current favorite glass, a
Riedel Vinum Bordeaux stem and a Riedel Vinum Pinot Noir (or any other Vinum
series stem that you care to try --- I recommend the Pinot because they are
similarly sized) glass. Try each one and think about the wine and how you
experience it. The other requirement is that you pour the same wine, from
the same bottle, in all three (or how many ever) glasses so you truely see
the difference.

We contact a regular Riedel seminar in which there are 5 wines tasted: a
sparkling, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and a Cabernet. I
have personally conducted more than 20 of these seminars (average 18-20
people) over the past 3 years and ever single person has always preferred
the correct Riedel stem for a given wine.

I have also simply poured people wine in a couple of different stems and
asked them if they preferred the particular wine from any particular glass.
Many times, the people had never heard of Riedel (or Spiegelau) and yet they
too have always said they preferred it from the correct stem.

Now the other side of this coin is that I too was very skeptical when I
first heard this and so I can understand where you are coming from. And I
still don't know that I find very much, if any variation in a lot of the
stems (again, there's 30+ Vinum series and many of these are very close to
each other in size, shape, etc.). For everyday drinking, we use the
following stems (all from the Vinum series): Sparkling/Champagne, Sauvignon
Blanc, Chardonnay, Bordeaux/Cabernet/Merlot and Burgundy/Pinot Noir. We
also use the Zinfandel/Chianti stem when we travel or go out.

And yes, I am partial to Riedel over Spiegelau simply because that was the
first ones that I used. I believe you can use either with the same results
equally well.

The final, bottom line (in my opinion) is that you really should just enjoy
your wine, along with some good food and friends, in whatever particular
stemware you happen to prefer. That's why it's made.

Cheers,
Gary