Don’t let my wife near them.
I’ve never tried that particular glass, but I absolutely love the Riedel Sommelier Sauternes glass for sauternes.
Yes. Your wine will taste better. Now every Zin, Chianti Classico, or Riesling will be a 100 point wine. Unfortunately, Chianti Ruffina and Cab will taste like ass. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
The sauternes glass is a brilliant glass.
Over/under on breakage is 3 months. =)
They ARE fragile - I’ll take 2 months ± 1 week.
I’ve managed to use my sauternes glass for about a year now and it’s still going strong! That glass is thinner than an eggshell, but it has somehow miraculously survived my washings by hand.
Maybe they’re protected - I have 4 and have never broken one, (oops - jinx!) I’ve broken just about everything else in the mean time.
Only buy wine glasses you can afford to replace on a regular basis. I’m perpetually amazed at the creative ways it’s possible to break a wine glass. My favorite is attempting to pour some wine from a decanter, having forgotten to remove the big round glass stopper from the decanter first. Boy that was spectacular. (And no wife was involved, BTW.)
I’m all for anything that’s “mouth-blown”.
So true for the most part I font Riedel stemware attractive but very brittle. The stems snap off easily and the rim of the glasses break off, when being buffed. I’m loyal to Schott Zwiesel.
We have the Sommelier and the Vinum Zinfandel glasses. For Chianti, Nebbiolo and Montipulciano, I prefer the Sommelier because it brings out more nuances, while my wife fairly consistently prefers the Vinum because it concentrates the wine. (But that might be because her first mother-in-law was Sicilian.)
I would add that, in terms of Sommelier vs Vinum, the Zinfandel/Chianti pair provides a dramatic difference in the Riedel line, second only to the Hermitage/Syrah pair.
Oh, before any of you weigh in with the “It’s all bullshit…” reply, my wife and I knew the difference the shape of a glass makes ten years before Riedel appeared on the US market.
PS: To minimize breakage, wash the glasses tomorrow.
And rotate the drying cloth, not the glass.
Mine break whenever I look at them angrily.
I loooove the burg sommelier and own a few but at 80 a pop it sucks when they break. Recently i was introducedto the nachtmann vivendi xxl. A german company owned by riedel. Exact same shape as the riedel gc burg sommelier but about a half inch shorter. At 9 a glass however i bought two dozen and now dont care if the cat knocks it off the counter
I love the Sommeliers Sauternes glasses – own 13, never broke one, thank goodness. Not every Riedel glass is able to demonstrate its superiority with the wine it’s designated for, but this one is definitely so able.
I also like the Sommelier Burg and Bordeaux glasses. I find that they are clearly superior with older wines, not so much with younger ones. They’re also fun. I find the Sommelier Bordeaux are the most likely to break because of their long stems. Also, they don’t fit in my dishwasher without altering its configuration, which isn’t easy.
I also like the Sommelier White Burgundy glasses, but they’re less special; I like them because they look nice.
Does it bother anyone that they contain lead crystal?
The Riedel Vinum line also contains lead. My understanding is that short term (ie. One evening/night) use of leaded crystal increases lead levels to about the level in drinking water, maybe slightly higher. However, leaded crystal should not be used for long term (>1-2 days) storage of port or distilled spirits because then the lead levels can get terrifyingly high (over a few months).
I’m afraid to use them, let alone think of putting them in the dishwasher.
Depending on how hard your water is, dishwashers are an optimal way to clean any glass, as long as the racking is suitable. Early on I learned that the more I handled a glass the more likely it was to break. I’ve never had a dishwasher break a glass, though I have had instances where I wasn’t careful enough taking the glass out and it broke.
It is important to dry the glass before the water dries on its own – if you don’t dry it yourself you will get water spots, which then have to be removed with steel wool (Brillo, SOS), meaning more handling, more chance of breakage.
+1…I can’t imagine my Somm stems would survive a trip through the DW.