Dishwasher and Wine Glasses

So I grew up with the idea that you should never put fine glassware in a dishwasher, and in fact not even use soap – the idea being that even a small residual amount will affect a wine, its nose and taste.

Based upon a number of comments here and elsewhere, I have experimented with some of my nicer glasses in the dishwasher on the delicate setting. [I suspect part of the developments since I learned not to use a dishwasher is more sophisticated dishwashers with delicate settings.] I have put Riedel Sommelier and Grassl glasses in – and of course I am now amazed about how clean they get. [Perhaps a comment on the quality of my hand washing…]

So the question is whether this is now pretty standard practice?

Second, and related, is it better to do this without soap at all? Or do some of you use a special soap just for wineglasses? Or is using regular dishwashing soap (in our case pods), fine?

I think it depends on your water. If you have really hard water, you get these mineral spots.

But really, I’m very skeptical that people can detect anything because of the way the glasses were washed, as long as all the soap is removed. People just aren’t such amazing tasters. I use regular dish soap and rinse well. I don’t use a dishwasher for anything, as I’ve never understood their utility, but the wine glasses get washed with the rest of the plates and spoons and they’re just fine.

At the recent UGC BDX event in NYC, every new glass I picked up smelled of soap. I had to rinse it out every time.

I use non-fragrant sensitive baby dish soap and wash by hand.

My primary glasses are Riedel restaurant series syrah glasses that I will use the dishwasher for when I have company-no issues. I mostly hand wash my glasses with a dedicated sponge and Dawn. My higher end glasses are always hand washed.

I put all my glasses except for some big, old Riedel Burgundy bowls (notoriously delicate) through the dishwasher. I’m a very careful handwasher, but the glasses come out much cleaner from the machine. I’ve never had a scent problem. Given the long rinse times on most machines now, I doubt that’s much of a risk.

The only times I’ve broken glasses in the machine are when (a) I’ve been careless lifting them in and out or (b) I was learning my new machine and put glasses in in a way that they could flop around on the posts. For the most part, it’s Spiegelau or other brands of 22 oz. Bordeaux glasses and some quite thin Crate & Barrel chianti/zinfandel glasses with fairly long stems.

Thanks for all of the useful replies. We have those smaller drawer dishwashers (two of them), so when I do use the dishwasher I only have wine glasses in.

John – I in fact did just use it for the old Riedel Burgundy Sommelier glasses – they came out perfectly. But they are so large that I can only put a few more glasses in with them for fear of them hitting each other. And yes, I have also thought I might break them putting them in or taking them out – so far I have been careful enough!

I have one of these: Kitchen. The pH of our water is 6.0 so we are not dealing with hard/mineral laden water. Works beautifully.

Mine go back to the 90s (remarkably, I’ve never broken one), when I think they had more/some lead in them, so I’m afraid they might get etched by the dishwasher soap, which does that to high-lead glass. If yours are newer, that’s probably not an issue.

Jonathan likes to put our Riedels in the dishwasher, and he only breaks them, like John said, putting in or lifting out. They come out perfectly clean and without smell. Zaltos, GGGs or Lehmann handblown champagne stems are done by hand always. In practice, unless we are having a party with many glasses to wash, I usually wash everything by hand with mild soap and hot water. The few spots don’t bother me.

I have always used the dishwasher. We do have good water here so I don’t see any spotting. If you are careful loading you should not break glasses. Most spotted glasses we have had are when they were hand washed.

I use an approximately 50-year-old GE to wash any glass – Riedel Vinum, Sommelier, anything except the Sommelier Bordeaux, whose stems are too long to fit with the upper rack in place. My experience is like John Morris’s – the only breakage occurs with careless handling by me, or during the drying process. I time the delicate wash cycle so that the glasses still have water on them; at that point I open the dishwasher and dry by hand. This eliminates any spotting from my water, which isn’t super-hard but would still leave mineral deposits if I didn’t dry them by hand.

I use a very small amount of Cascade powder, plus some Finish. There are sometimes lipstick marks on the rims (or other detritus), in which case I use steel wool on the rim, rinse, and dry by hand.

Good results over a 30-year time period, more than 1000 glasses per year. In another location (Santa Barbara), the water is super-hard and needs to be softened. The softened water leaves unacceptable spots on the glassware (not just wine glasses), so I wash all glasses by hand there.

Uh oh. Mine are from the 90s. Maybe even 80s. I will be more conservative with them then. Thanks for the tip.

We have hard water where I’m at, and sometimes when I pull a glass out of the dishwasher, I will immediately smell it (just as if it was holding wine). I’m not sure why, but every now and then they come out with a horrible smell, sort of snail smell (I’m sure that doesn’t make sense to anybody) - hard to define what it is. I will often throw some vinegar in the bottom of the machine because it helps with water spots, and I have never had a residual vinegar smell.

I’ve been washing my Schott Zwiesel Tritans (titanium crystal) for years in a dishwasher with some Cascade liquid soap. Only a couple broken, but due to my handling not the dishwasher.

As for a few spots, who cares?

We used to have an Asko that wouldn’t accommodate stems. Just bought a top of the line Bosch with water softener. Seems to do a good job but mostly I’ve washed Riedel and Gabriel machine made. I did try some GGG. I haven’t tried Zalto Bordeaux, need to get my courage up. Less water spots after adding salt to the softener.

Awesome! I’ve never read that description before. Hope to see it in a tasting note soon. [cheers.gif]

I have a Jet Tech commercial dishwasher at the shop and nearly new Kitchen Aid at home. We use Riedel Restaurant Series glasses, plus a couple Vinums at home. All go through the dish washers without any problems AND no spots. The Jet Tech uses commercial grade, hi temp, detergent and commercial grade rinse aid. Carrie uses Cascade pods at home.

As long as it’s your tasting note, I’m ok with it too.

This one is easy for me:

Zalto: 9 year old glasses, four types, dishwasher every time.
Reidel Cab XL: dishwasher
Gabriel Glas Gold: dishwasher
Costco Kirkland “Reidel”: dishwasher

Zero breaks. Ever. Sometimes they need a rinse before use. Can’t imagine ever washing by hand. Seems time consuming and an accident waiting to happen.

I wash cheaper stems with dishwSher. No issue

I wash zaltos by hand with dish soap. I just rinse really well with hot water. No issues. Like washing zaltos is an event on its own. :slight_smile: