Riedel stemless wine glasses
 

I picked up some of these at Around Wine in London and love them. In fact, they are my wine glass of choice at home now. The only problem is that the bowl seems to warm faster than normal due to direct handling, but I can live with that. I always kind of thought it was a myth that the shape of the glass would really affect the taste of the wine in a noticeable way, but we can definitely tell a difference. Riedel has definitely mastered this science. The other thing is that they are very sturdy - it is very hard to tip these things over, even when...buzzed, we'll say.

Anybody else tried these or have a better recommendation at the same price range - say £10 a glass?

I had some but they managed to break over time. We now use Schott Zwiesel Tritan most of the time and prefer them to the Riedel glasses (of which we still have many). The Tritan series is about as tough as they come. ^

There was just a story about the shape of the wine glass that many of the wineries I know was circulating

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...s-enhance-wine

It was an interesting read in that for some it totally changed the taste of the wine based on the shape of the glass.

Quite a few years ago, my partner's friend and her husband came to visit, and brought over a bottle of home-brew wine (some red). I told the fiend's husband about the Vinum glasses and he wasn't convinced. Serving the wine in 2 different shapes, both of them admitted the wine did taste different out of both glasses (not that you can make proverbial silk purses....)

There's an interesting Austrian connection as both my partner and her friend are ethnic Austrians though only the hand-blown glasses are made in Austria these days.

Good wine glasses do make a difference, but my main gripe with the Riedel stemless glasses is that one's hands can't help but warm the wine. Sometimes that's desirable, but oftentimes it's not. Good stemware, including that made by Riedel and other comparable brands, allows you to choose to hold the glass by either the bowl or the stem, depending upon whether the wine itself is already at the proper temperature for optimal enjoyment.

We got some of these as a gift, and I love how they've managed to hold up to the dishwasher. I also agree that it warms the wine pretty quickly from holding it. I only ever drink reds out of them, and try not to handle them too much. We also got an aerator that pops into the bottle opening, so it aerates it while it's pouring. I'm quite impressed, and love proving to people the difference in the taste of the wine with and without the aerator.

I guess the next question would be whether there is any difference between the Vinum range and the hand-blown Sommelier range. I doubt that I would be able to tell the difference, but I'm also not about to buy any.

I use the Sommelier glasses almost all the time despite having more shapes in the Vinum -- find the "wrong" Sommelier is still better than the "right" Vinum. Having a 1 liter wine glass is a bit intimidating, though :) But the wine tastes so good, definitely a difference with Sommelier glasses over the other (smaller) Riedel.

Edit to add: a rather important consideration is that the Sommelier glasses are not designed to flatter a wine -- while the other Riedel glasses are. Part of the Sommelier glass function is to accentuate the flaws of a wine, to make differentiation in tasting easier; so use only with good wines :)

I finally broke down and bought a Sommelier Burgundy glass on a trip this week. I definitely have enough good burgundy on hand to give it a thorough testing.

Well, the Sommelier glass was a partial success - for my wife. I opened a premier cru Burgundy and poured some in a vinum and in the Sommelier. I couldn't really tell a big difference. So I asked my wife, who has a much stronger pallette than I do, to taste and give me her thoughts. She was floored by the wine in the Sommelier and said it was amazing on the nose compared to the vinum. So I guess it's hers now

I used to love Riedel but as several others have noted it is far to easy warming the wine when cuping the glass. These days I prefer the simple elegance of Kosta Boda. I use their stemless cocktail glass for wine. The crystal in these glasses is a bit thicker while still light.

I got 2 handmade recycled wine glasses as a gift about an year ago. These glasses exceeded my expectations. They was as large as I expected and made from a thick and durable glass material. they have a beautiful uniqueness as they catch the light and have fairly greenish glow in them. Since they are larger but still comfortable and seems to be durable.

We have these. I call them "eggshells." We broke two in the first week with normal use. Nothing in the way we handled them would've caused them to break. Now we hand wash them carefully but they are my husband's favorite wine glass.

Not Reidel (I won't spend money on something I will inevitably break), but we have a set of stemless glasses from Ikea (I think). They work just fine, don't tip over like stemware, and are really neat to look at.

As for affecting the taste... I think it's basically a myth, although I can see how some glasses will affect the flow of the liquid into your mouth, thus altering taste perception.

However, considering that I rarely spend more than 20-30 bucks on a bottle of wine, I doubt that this makes much difference. Temperature and oxygenation is FAR more important.

If you ever drank wine out of a plastic cup at a summer BBQ, you'd change your mind. :p

Shameless plug for WineDo 5 below.

I just had wine out of a plastic cup yesterday. It was on Turkish Airlines, but it got the job done