Riedel 'O' line: who likes them?

[Jenise]

On another board, some people have expressed their opinion that the O lne has been a failure for Riedel. This seems in part due to the fact that the glasses have come way down in price and are easily available: even Trader Joe's sells/has sold them. Others don't agree and see the ease of attainment a good thing, and point to the fact that other manufacturers are copying the style.

I have no idea. I know that I have two pairs for travel purposes, but hate the fingerprints and wouldn't like them for home use. Too, I'm a girl, and some of the glasses are just plain too big for my hand. The chardonnay and burgundy glasses are ridiculous--I don't so much hold one as I bobble it. I have to pick it up from the lip and rest it perilously in the palm of one hand where the slightest jostle could flip it right onto the carpet. And I can only just hold onto the narrower of the syrah and cab sizes, though I don't remember which is which. That's what I bought for travelling, also the sauv blanc size.

So whether or not the glasses are successful with you men, I have a hard time imagining that they've achieved wide-spread success at home. Those of you who do prefer them, do your ladies also prefer them? Is she able to hold onto the larger sizes like you can? Are fingerprints during use an issue?

[Robin Garr]

I like them, and they've also been, to be crass about it, a good revenue stream for WLP on Amazon, suggesting that literally hundreds of readers like them, too.

Best I can tell, there are a couple of reasonable reasons for not liking them - small hands (that's Mary's reason) or a strong feeling that greasy fingers shouldn't touch glass bowls (although that's what napkins are for). I do get a sense of snobbery in some of the opposition, which may or may not relate to "other boards."

I don't see anything not to like, frankly. They're good Riedel bowls, they just happen not to have stems. If I don't use them with fried chicken, and do wipe my fingers on a nappy before picking them up, I see no problem.

I have the sauvingon blanc Riedel 'O', which has a smaller handprint. Like you, I find the others too cumbersome. But I don't use the glasses if I have a choice. I like my stems, easier for swirling.

Cheers,
Sue

[Jenise]

I don't see anything not to like, frankly. They're good Riedel bowls, they just happen not to have stems. If I don't use them with fried chicken, and do wipe my fingers on a nappy before picking them up, I see no problem.

Well, fried chicken's a pretty extreme example. Even handling bread can make your hands greasy enough to leave fingerprints.

[Robin Garr]

Even handling bread can make your hands greasy enough to leave fingerprints.

Hey, I'm always forgetting and holding my regular stemmed glasses by the bowl.

Maybe I'm also attuned to them because I've used the Les Impitoyables mini-taster as my tasting glass for many years, so I'm used to being stem-free.

It does seem to me, though, that the greasy-prints thing and the large bowl, small hands thing seem to be the two strongest arguments against them.

But as I said, I can also report that the Os are a perennial good seller among our Amazon offerings, and this has been constant for well over a year.

I have a friend who has some of these. I often serve as hostess for his business-related dinner parties.

I agree with Jenise that the size is an issue for small hands (including mine), but my main objection is purely aesthetic. I find they work ok for a casual table setting, but if I want to set a formal table, I like the look of the different heights of the various elements when well composed. I especially like the way candlelight plays of stemmed glassware. The Os are too low to catch much of it.

I don't own any Os. But I have friends that do and it doesn't bother me if they use. Of course I am coarse enough to sometimes grip bowl on stems.

For me personally, the Schott Zwiesell titanium crystal stems have the durability/washability of the Os without any issues. But they are bulkier for travel

Janet and I both love them, Jenise. Janet is tiny, but she likes both the white and the Bordeaux sizes.

Neither of notice any finger prints on our glasses, certainly no more than on the stems, which we now reserve for special occasions or for those times we get a corked wine and switch to a new wine and clean glasses.

I think the fingerprint problem occurs when you hold the glass with the finger tips. I noticed that both Janet and I hold glasses the same way, with the sides of our pointer finger and our thumb, with perhaps the tip of a pinkie for balance.

Two strong yes votes from two genders in New Jersey.

Regards, Bob

PS: I asked Janet about the greasy finger problem -- she mentioned that we are both very strongly right handed and that we rarely touch food with the right hand -- finger food, like bread, we butter with right hand and hold with the left. The only thing we handle with both hands that we can think of is corn on the cob.

Of course, we handle the glasses with our right hands. Ergo, no fingerprints.

B.

I suppose that I could get use to them, but the "O"s feel awkward in my hand. It seems that I have better control, particularly for swirling, with stems. My opinion may involve some subconscious snobbery on my part as well. Drinking wine doesn't seem to be quite as much of an "occasion" when I use the "O" glasses.

I find them somewhat awkward to hold and, try as I might I cannot keep fingerprints off of them. I do have a set of the spirit glasses that I enjoy using for bourbon; they are smaller, easier to hold and I'm generally not in the kitchen or otherwise handling food, so they stay cleaner.

No support here. Awkward to handle, hard to swirl and leaves finger prints. My mother gave me two and we take them on picnics. She bought me two more for Christmas last year and I took them back and got a decanter.
Walt

I'm with Jeff: They make great whiskey glasses. (And also great whisky glasses, all you single-mart smarties )

We like the smaller (OK ladies') size for travelling, BYOB, and corkage. The problem we run into is that our tote grips glasses by the stem. So we have the choice of bringing clunky ones that go better in the tote, or wrapping up the O's in kitchen towels and stacking them in the tote. Of course when unwrapping them in a trendy platz you have to be careful not to expose your kitchen towels to all. It's tough being a geek!

[Jenise]

Of course when unwrapping them in a trendy platz you have to be careful not to expose your kitchen towels to all. It's tough being a geek!

Carl, I never cease being amused by all the luggage that wine geeks arrive with.

Interesting diversity of opinions here. Bob, I'm surprised that Janet (who you say is tiny) can handle the Bordeaux size. I never feel like I have a good grip on the thing, and I'm a tall girl with medium sized hands (if short fingers). Do you use them at the dinner table, too? It's been awhile since I used mine, but the fingerprint issue isn't from eating with our hands. It's actually from frequently picking up and putting down the glass, because we both find it hard to get a secure hand-hold by lifting from the base one-handed--the other hand comes over to steady it, and the glass is frequently lifted from the lip.

Cynthia, that's an interesting situation, the formal dinner party. Had given no thought to that beyond the problem of just getting the glass securely in hand.

I think they're okay, Jenise.

I probably wouldn't use them for formal dining, but I think they're fine dining en famille.

Don't have any trouble with the smudging, but that's probably because I do grasp them down towards the curve of the bowl, and not up high on the wall of the glass. I actually like cupping the curve of the glass; it's a good, solid, substantial, almost sensual, feel.

Roxi likes them too. I think she likes them even more than I do.

"Do you use them at the dinner table, too?"

Pretty much always, Jenise. Janet seems to hold her glass in the manner Hoke describes. She's pretty casual about wine in any event despite her extraordinary tasting abilities.

She cups stemmed glasses exactly the same way, and prefers the Os in part because they are more stable on the table.

"Tiny" may be an overstatement -- she's 5' 5" or so, with medium to small fingers -- size 6 to 6 1/2 in glove size depending on the maker. Gardening wears Mediums that are easier to put on and take off, but are really too big for her.

Not for me...

I've never even handled one, but I won't buy them. If I didn't want a stem, I'd use a heavy cut water glass for wine like they use in Italian restaurants. I can't really see the difference.

Anyway, I just like stemmed wineglasses.

Richard

[Jenise]

I can't really see the difference.

Richard, I think the difference would be the curvature and the way it focusses aromas into a narrower opening, vs. a typical tumbler which does the opposite. You should get a lot more nose in the curved glass.

Just don't like handling wine glasses by the bowl. I'm a stem guy. Never tried the 'O', but I certainly don't like to handle my Vinums by the bowl. Baffles me that they sell at all. Diff'rent folks, I guess!
cheers,
Graeme

So whether or not the glasses are successful with you men, I have a hard time imagining that they've achieved wide-spread success at home. Those of you who do prefer them, do your ladies also prefer them? Is she able to hold onto the larger sizes like you can? Are fingerprints during use an issue?

There's an ass for every seat (old car sales expression.) You'll find women riding motorcycles so wide for them that they can't put both of their feet down at the same time. You can bet such a woman wouldn't hold a stem if her life depended on it. And if she burned her leg on an exhaust pipe, she would consider the print it left to be a badge of honor.

I'm a girl

So's my wife, so I asked her when she came in the door. I modeled the concept by obstructing the stem from view.

She srewed up her face and said "What???" like I had lost my mind. Then I explained that you had asked. She said, "I mean you're drinking wine! If you didn't care about wine, sure, it would be fine. Your hand is 98.6 degrees and little nuances of temperature matter. Holding the glass is part of the experience...ect. She actually went on and on.

Then you probably have a bunch of women in the middle, not bikers and not lady-girls. Lots of them married strong men. They do what they are told and don't think about it, until some new kid comes around.

I'm just back from a brief encounter with Jerome Quiot (largest landowner in Chateauneuf-du-Pape) who told me that wines served at cellar temperature (around 62 degrees F) will rise to room temperature in a quarter of an hour--faster than water. He serves his reds from a chiller.

On the other hand, whites are almost always served too cold.

So maybe 0s for whites and stems for reds?

I still think the pinot/nebbiolo glass is ideal for a not-so-wee dram of Dalwhinnie...

[James Roscoe]

Dave,
I'm with you. When I'm finished with an evening of red wine, I love to save the nice bordeaux glass for a drop of Glenrothes or Abelour.
Cheers!
James

Jenise,

We own two sizes of the Os, the Bordeaux size and the Viognier size. Cindy likes them, as do I, for certain purposes. Another denizen of this board, Andrew Hall, brought some to an offline. He pointed out that on a crowded table with many stems full of wine, you don't have to worry about knocking the Os over. So we have been using ours for offlines. Also, I use them around the house if I will be doing something where I am concerned about knocking a glass over.

Also, as a lot of folks have pointed out, travelling. Also agree that swirling is not as easy. Finally, we would not use them for anything approximating formal dining. Maybe snobby but also practical....we don't have enough of them to set the table!

As far as size is concerned, even I feel less than comfortable holding the Bordeaux glass. It just feels like its on the verge of slipping out of my hand.