Originally Posted by
slawecki
../There is not much special about riedel ...shape is important to impress people. sparkling, red and white wines have sort of standard shapes, as do mosel and chianti and brunello, etc.
Absolutely disagree about Riedel and shape. Your points are valid for pre-science era, but now that wine has been subjected to some scientific analysis (courtesy of universities like UC Davis that has an oeneology program), the rather absurd claims by Riedel that the shape of the glass makes specific grape varietals taste better has been proven to be true. Unfortunately for Riedel they don't own this technology (for example Spiegelau has precisely duplicated the key shape elements -- but many other glass makers have not).
Nobody wants a story about wine tasting on FT, so I'll keep it short. Flavour in wine (and food) comes from taste and smell. Taste buds are limited to 4 flavours (bitter, sweet, salty and sour); everything else is smell. More interestingly different parts of the tongue are specialized in the 4 taste receptors. Riedel discovered that the shape of the glass changes where the wine hits on the tongue when drinking. So the same wine can taste sweeter in a different shape of glass -- because it hits the sweet part of the tongue more than the bitter part of the tongue. He didn't know any of this explanation at the time, only that the wine tasted better. Through trial and error (coloured by tradition) the "optimal" shape for different varietals was determined. There is an astonishing difference in drinking the same wine from 3 different shapes of Riedel glasses.
The pro taster glass (made by Riedel) is actually designed to expose the flaws in the wine (i.e. to make it taste worse!). While the burgundy, etc. glasses are trying to make it taste better. I use the pro taster glass for evaluating wines (and it does a great job of that!) but not for serving it for enjoyment. The Spiegelau glasses are much cheaper and just as good, from a technology perspective, but my "good" glasses are strictly Riedel. The other brands of glasses don't come close. If you can only buy one, get the Riedel Sommelier Burgundy Grand Cru glass (it holds 37 oz!). It works well for many different wines, and is stunning for Pinot Noir.
p.s. the Riedel brandy taster is astonishing, makes cognac twice as good (surprising result, and a bigger differential than with most wines).