I wouldn’t bring glasses, either.
But I’d probably end up cleaning their glasses before pouring, which might be even ruder.
Seriously, I dislike drinking fine wine from musty glasses more than from small glasses.
The glasses wouldn’t be a big deal to a lot of people, but you are asking, so it must be for you.
Bring the wine, bring glasses, and under no circumstances take the glasses with you upon departure.
“We really have too many glasses, and you would be doing me a favor if I could just leave them.”
Another bring the wine but not the glasses or a glass opinion. If you want to bring a bit lesser, but by no means mediocre, wine, fine if the stem issues is that much of an problem. Have them over to your place and have light discussion about glassware, maybe. Give them stems next opportunity or occasion. Or, just break a few of theirs and say, “Sorry, guess I owe you new glasses. Oddly enough I have some extras in my car”. 
Oh God yes! Who would EVER use a glass from the store without washing it? But I rinse glasses I take from our cupboard. I do that ever since I lived in a place where they had a cockroach problem. In my current house, there are spiders and moths and try as you may, you never really get rid of them all. Nothing like taking a sip of wine only to ingest a nice bit of web.
And that’s another thing about bringing your glasses. What do you carry them in? An open container? A box? And do you rinse them before use? If not, and they have picked up the inevitable cardboardy aromas and flavors from the tube/box/shipper, you’ve just demonstrated that your entire justification for bringing them is BS. Your nose and palate is so delicate and perceptive that you need special glasses to reveal the most subtle characteristics of your wine but you can’t pick up off flavors and aromas from your shipping package?
I love the idea of breaking a few of their glasses though!
I know the suspense has been killing you all …
I went with the slight-downgrade-in-wines-brought-and-don’t-sweat-the-glasses option.
Had it been a more “formal” wine education, contemplative type of dinner, I would have brought the stems and aged Burgundy. I could’ve explained why they better showcase special wines and not have appeared too fussy and condescending – at least I think I could have.
Instead, I selected two 2017 wines: Rouget’s Bourgogne Aligote and an Enfield Pinot from Heron Lake in Napa. My hosts loved the wines’ freshness and ebullience. Because they aren’t ponderous or deeply contemplative wines, it didn’t matter really that they weren’t served in Zaltos. The bright Rouget worked well with a lemony kale salad and the savory, high-acid Enfield complemented a very, very mild chicken curry.
The glasses were actually different than my last visit, where we had buffet-style goblets. Last night it was stemless bowls and no one thought twice about the damn glasses! (Only me in my head and thinking about all the posts I had read in advance of the dinner …)
It was a lovely evening of good wine, good friends, good food, good music. Moral of story: Don’t overthink things!
Nice !
well done
+1
And well done Matthew! Don’t ever let them see this thread!
Late to the thread here, but I would not take glasses. Take wine appropriate for their stems or a step above their stems, and make due. We have some friends that host us with some frenquency and we always take wine, but never glasses.
I take glasses to the Stolz house because they are fellow geeks and understand my desire to have my own glasses. Since I seem to be missing either a Grassal or a Zalto, I may ask him to bring one of his to our house in two weeks.
Absolutely bring glasses to go with the wine. I’ve done that several times, never been received badly. Why would it? They know you’re into wine - decent glasses are part of that.
A couple decades ago, I had only cheap wine glasses despite being a neophyte wine lover. I just didn’t know better and, hell, our furniture was mostly free stuff I found on the street or at a scratch-and-dent outlet. We were pretty much scraping by and living in a small apartment in SF. We always ate and drank above our income.
We invited a friend over for dinner one night (we only had two chairs, so I sat on a stool that did double duty as a nightstand). Our friend arrived with some decent (not extraordinary) stems along with a nice bottle of Mendocino pinot noir. I took no umbrage and really appreciated her thoughtfulness. I immediately perceived that the wine was better from a better stem and never looked back. This was a leap forward in my wine education, courtesy of our friend.
When it comes to wine, a thoughtful gift will typically be welcome.
I posted about a month ago about a special deal on Riedel wine glasses at of all places Best Buy. The deal was for four really nice glasses for $10 (Cab, or Pinot, or Chardonnay). Regular price was $40 for 4. I bought four-4 packs of the Pinot glasses to use for large gathering at our house, or to gift just for this type of situation. I should have bought like 10 sets. It solves a lot of issues like this, you bring your fine wines and a 4-pack of glasses and offer them as a gift to the hosts…a win/win for everyone
There is no way in hell I’m bringing glasses. I don’t think I’ll ever care about wine enough to do so or not be able to enjoy wine out of shitty glasses enough to do so.
I’m bringing good wine, I’m gonna enjoy drinking it out of whatever glass or shoe they pour it in, and I’m not giving it another thought.
Still remembering that 2001 Quintarelli Valpolicello and how it showed almost nothing out of those glasses. A crime against nature (and humanity)…
Have you ever done side-by-side tastings of the same wine out of different glasses?
I fully understand the value of a good wine glass.
Paul,
I’m with you 100%. First, I don’t care enough. Second, to me, there is an incredibly weird social aspect to this.
I’ve been to many wine dinners in NYC where we’ve brought stems knowing the restaurants stemware wasn’t adequate. But this is something completely different.
As an aside, there are two local places by me, one is a Greek place, the other more Middle Eastern. Both restaurants are super QPR’s. The quality of the meal vastly exceeds the cost. Both places have shitty wine glasses. I know this in advance. Now I could bring stems, but I’d rather just bring a solid QPR wine that I’m happy to enjoy out of shitty glasses and save the DRC Romanee Conti for another meal.
I remember a conversation with a guy in my extended group of wine buddies. At the time we were in our late 20’s, early 30’s. He was single and going on blind dates. He told me a story about taking a blind date to a BYO in the West Village (Tartine) and bringing wine (to be expected, it’s a BYO) and bringing stems. I asked him if they went out on a second date. He said he wanted to, but she never returned his call. No shit Sherlock! She was looking for a normal dude, not the guy who brings his own wine glasses to the first date (or any date).
I don’t think it some horrid thing to gift someone glasses…I can only speak for me, and my attitude.
Neither do I. But I’m pretty confident that you would bring the gift in a socially acceptable manner. Not a “hey, your wine glasses are so pathetic I had to gift you some so I could use them when I’m at your house”.