I know a lot of folks here bring their own stems to BYOB restaurants. My wife just informed me that we’re going to dinner in a few weeks with some good friends to a BYOB Italian joint. It’s local, laid back…the kind of place where folks won’t look at you weird or care if you bring your own glasses (not that I care what they think).
Any suggestions on a good case? I’m assuming you’re not walking around with just the stems dangling, but not sure. Thx in advance.
Riedel used to sell one. I recall seeing it on the wine enthusiast site.
Thanks guys, I actually like the bag - it’s pretty low-key, which is nice when walking into a restaurant.
I use a LuLulemon bag. Strangely, I break a fair amount if stems.
The nice thing about buying from Bed Bath and Beyond is that if you buy it now, you still can get a price adjustment when you receive the 20% off coupon of 1 item.
Does the Riedel bag actually hold four of their large stemware?
Any low-key suggestions without the Riedel branding?
It can hold 4 vinum BDX stems but it can’t hold 4 vinum burg stems. Most I can get away with is 3 burg and one BDX.
I admire that you can admit to owning a Lululemon anything.
Though this may not be what you are asking, in terms of bringing a larger number of glasses to a tasting, there are not very many good options. The Reidel bag only carries 4 glasses at best, and only 3 of the Vinum Burgundy or Oregon XL Pinot glass (my preferred glass). Would need 3-4 bags for a larger tasting!
I bought the restaurant series of both the Oregon XL and the Chianti Classico (which i use for whites and some other reds) in addition to the Vinum glasses I had, and one of their most compelling features (other than price and durability) is the box that makes it easy to carry 12 glasses of each to tastings. If over time the boxes start to break down, I will be sad. I wish there were some nice boxes made to accommodate 12 larger bowl Burgundy glasses…if there are, I have not found them.
I use a plastic hand gun case w foam eggcrate.
I’ve used the 6 bottle Cool Tote for carrying wine and bottles. It’s lightweight and durable
http://www.cooltote.com/winebags.htm
I bought mine at Hi Times.
Do you know if the sections are wide enough for the Vinum Burgundy or Oregon XL Pinot bowl?
They are adjustable with Velcro closures.
My bag is similiar to this one. In the front I ripped out all the picnic stuff and it will hold a bottle of red and a bottle of white with an cooler sleeve around it. In the back where the bottles would normally go i put in 2 red wine glasses in the insulated compartments. We use the house glasses for whites. The front will close enough so only the tops of the bottles are sticking out . Works great.
I use the same bag that Jim Dietz uses. You can fit four Vinum Burgundy stems and two bottles of wine, for example. It’s a bit of a tight fit, but I’ve never broken a stem in the bag.
-Al
Well, at this point, it seems like the best answer for taking 10-12 Burgundy stems to a tasting is still the cardboard box that the restaurant stems (not the Vinum stems) come in.
( I am assuming by Al’s comment that 4 Burg stems and a couple bottles of wine will fit into the described bag, but that 6 stems will not due to their width.)
+1 I’ve got the same one and it can hold 4 Reidel Oregon Pinot stems and 2 white stems at the same time. Never broken anything. It’s $20 locally at any gun store and I don’t know why you’d spend $50+ to get a case with Reidel embroidered on it.
I engage pretty comfortably and openly in many forms of unabashed wine geekery, but I’ll admit to having a lot of reluctance bringing stems to a restaurant.
For a weeknight wine tasting gathering, I can do it (I keep a few of the 6-stem boxes from past Schott or Spieglau purchases), or maybe at a sushi place or somewhere that people otherwise aren’t drinking wine, but I struggle otherwise. Fortunately, I’ve found plenty of restaurants with adequate-to-good stemware around here where I go BYOB.
It goes back to the “what is the wine geekiest thing you do” thread – we all have to draw the line somewhere, though not necessarily because of anything logical.
Given that two posters here have admitted to using handgun cases to bring wineglasses to restaurants, I don’t think anything you could do should cause you embarrassment, Chris.
LOL