Do you use wine charms

[James Roscoe]

I was taking wine charms off our glasses this morning and it got me to wondering whether other people used these. We started using them on holidays after one sister-in-law put a small carrot in her class to identify her wine. Carrots get lost in red wine and at dinner another sister-in-law indignantly asked who put the carrot in her wine. At the next holidat s-i-s #1 got a huge carrot in her glass. After that we received some charms and have been using them for years. I can certainly understand how some people would find them annoying. What do others think?

We have them but don't use 'em. If the number of winedrinkers around here ever got higher than four (us and two son-in-laws) we would consider it. Don't ask if we ever had friends over. We do, but most of them don't drink wine either!

I used some last night because we had a dozen people over to dinner.

I would never put anything into the wine. This is close to what I use: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41kUGVcOlHL.jpg

Seeing as I ask people to use the same glass throughout the meal, I find the charms useful.

Best regards,
Alex R.

If we have a large crowd and most of them drink wine- yes
Last night we had a lot of people over for a get together. We used plastic cups and used a Sharpie to scribble our names on it.

... but most of them don't drink wine either!

Carl, time for new friends???

I voted sometimes, though seldom might be more accurate.
At large backyard parties I do tend to use charms on the real glasses (most people probably use plastic), reduces the amount of half filled glasses found abandoned. Mostly at dinner parties, I figure people who are sitting down can keep track of their stems - if the pre-dinner mingle/drink bubbly period is going to be more than 20 or 30 minutes, I might use charms on flutes. Generally at dinner I'll give people 2-3 stems for the still wines, as their is usually a variety, and I wouldn't look forward to removing 30 charms at end of night!

[James Roscoe]

Dale, I am a simple person and thus simple polls are all I can create. I used "sometimes" as a catch-all for all the other situations. I didn't want to complicate the poll.

James, it wasn't meant as a criticism, seldom is certainly a subset of sometimes, I was just explaining my use.
Anyway, remember someone will always cry "flawed poll"

I never even heard of a wine charm until I read this thread!

[David M. Bueker]

I use them occasionally, but the ones on metal wires can etch the stems if you are a swirler (as most of us likely are). We also have some rubber wine charms that seem more benevolent to the stemware.

We have young children, so there are always some kind of sticker around. I put small stickers on the base of each glass when I give them to guests. They like being told 'your glass has the turtle on it. Yours has the purple bear' etc. We're pretty informal.

I wouldn't have a party where I used stems but didn't use some kind of identifier. We're always forgetting which glass is whose.

[James Roscoe]

I like that solution. As a school teacher, I wonder why that didn't occur to me?

Sometimes. When it's a sit-down dinner then they are not necessary. If it's walk-about, or there are several simultaneous wines served, then yes.

Like Joe Moryl who posted above, I had not encountered the term "wine charms" until this thread was posted. It did not take much effort to decode the term. I do not use "charms" per se. What I use either when entertaining a larger than usual group at a cocktail or reception or when I attend walk-about tastings and set some glasses aside for later tastings are dot stickers, the kind that come in rolls or on sheets in multiple colors (I have nine but using them in multiple combinations makes a great many possibilities). The ones I use measure about 1 cm (1/2") in diameter. They attach easily to the base of the wine glass and are just as easily removable.

Yep, we encourage the use it when having more than 6 wine-driking guests. Works especially well with non-winegeek guests who are not as aware of extra effort involved in washing wine stems, as in not in dishwasher, and so they tend to just leave/forget their stems wherever they please and would grab fresh ones from the bar counter. Most of the time, they are appreciative of being enlightened about what the charms represent.

I don't like wine charms but I do provide winetags (www.winetag.com) whenever I remember to...

I do provide winetags (http://www.winetag.com) whenever I remember to...

and when he does I tend to leave them on my stems and use till Betsy points out they've gotten grotty. Thanks Jay!
Very useful in big offline situations, as you can note wine right on stem. I guess I should buy my own.

[Jenise]

They can be quite useful at large parties, but I otherwise don't think wine glasses need jewelry and the room has to have ten or so people in it before I even think of getting them out. I bought my first ones when I was travelling through New Mexico about ten years ago and the woman in the next room was making them. No beads or silly bobbles, just a simple silver collar and unlike many I've been given at other people's houses a little southwestern charm big enough that you don't need a loup to ID yours from an arm's length away (I always get the Sherriff's badge ). I'm sure now that it wasn't her original idea but at the time I thought so as I had never even heard of such a thing, and they were still a few years away from ubiquity.

I hate them. In large groups a significant % forget which charm is there's so why bother. They also damage the glass. Wife buys them; I throw them out.

C'mon, Roscoe: fess up.

You like to put all your little wine charms on a bracelet and wear them around the house.

[James Roscoe]

C'mon, Roscoe: fess up.

You like to put all your little wine charms on a bracelet and wear them around the house.

It's where I put the bracelet that makes it fun!

Yes, everytime before pulling the cork I say to the genie in the bottle "please don't be corked!"

We use charms at our house on occasion, but some male guests have complained that they are "less than masculine".

At one party I received a glass with a clover charm. It amazed me that my charmed wine glass seemed to follow me around the party. About an hour in I realized that everyone's glass had the same clover charm on it. The hostess was using them as wine glass decoration rather than as a means of identifying one's own glass.

I've actually toyed with the idea of making tags, with people's names printed on them, that would fit around the stem. Covered with either plastic document laminate or even clear packaging tape (to protect from drips) and a split hole that would fit around the stem (like the bread bag closures). Graphics could be put on them and people could keep them and reuse them. Duplicates could be made if multiple stems are being used. Almost sounds like a Martha Stewart thing.

At one party I received a glass with a clover charm. It amazed me that my charmed wine glass seemed to follow me around the party. About an hour in I realized that everyone's glass had the same clover charm on it. The hostess was using them as wine glass decoration rather than as a means of identifying one's own glass.

Hoosier!