Glasses?

Time to buy a new set of wine glasses as we have broken a bunch over the years.

I'd like to get half decent wine glasses but not break the bank. I see the Riedel Ouverture red wine glasses and Ouverture Magnnum red wine glasses on amazon. Any one have these? Are the Magnum's just too big?

Any other suggestions?

-Aamer

Time to buy a new set of wine glasses as we have broken a bunch over the years.

I'd like to get half decent wine glasses but not break the bank. I see the Riedel Ouverture red wine glasses and Ouverture Magnnum red wine glasses on amazon. Any one have these? Are the Magnum's just too big?

Any other suggestions?

-Aamer

I own some and rather like them. I find the Overture red ideal for white wines and even dessert wines but too small for most red wines. The Overture Magnum is nice for red wines. I think they are a very nice "basic" range of glasses.

They are also excellent as beer glasses IMO! Certainly glasses for many uses...

...They are also excellent as beer glasses IMO! Certainly glasses for many uses...

Otto - it is surprising how good beer tastes in wine glasses.

[Jenise]

Aamer, I have the Riedel Magnums, I use them to take to tastings. The short stem is very convenient to the task of NOT getting tipped over and going nicely in the dishwasher later (I take 12 to tastings, so this is important!). I checked what you found on Amazon because there's more than one size of Magnum, and those on Amazon are indeed the larger, red wine size. Definitely not too big--I checked because I wanted to make sure you didn't buy glasses too small. If you're going to be drinking young red wines then you need a big bowl to maximize aromatics.

And I hate to say this, but you really need more than one size glass: you don't need to be excessive and have six or eight like I do, but you need a wide burgundy shaped bowl for pinots and southern Rhones, and a narrower/taller bowl for cabs, etc. The shape of the glass makes a HUGE difference in showing different wines' different attributes to best advantage. The Magnums are awful for showing pinots--all you get is the acids, none of the fruit.

If you are also in the market for white wine glasses, I just got a set of Turbo Nose, and they are amazing.

The aroma comes rushing forward to your nose, unlike a traditional style where you have to sometimes dig for it. It really helped me learn to identify aromas.

Locally, Bed, Bath and Beyond here in the DC area has a set of four Riedel glasses in a cardboard tube, like a mailing tube for posters. They sell tham as parrty glasses. Since one can never have too many wine glasses, I bought some. They are similer to the Riedel Ouverture Magnum, not long stemmed but very nice. The best part is they were $19.99 US and the tube makes storage pretty easy.

...They are also excellent as beer glasses IMO! Certainly glasses for many uses...

Otto - it is surprising how good beer tastes in wine glasses.

Not really surprising: good beers smell so wonderfully complex so of course it's nice to drink them out of a glass where the scent shows so well!

I just got a set of Turbo Nose, and they are amazing. The aroma comes rushing forward to your nose.

Turbo Nose? All I could find was...
http://www.amazon.com/Conair-NE152CS-Ultimate-Turbo-Trimmer/dp/B00006347H
So the removal of nasal hair really does make a difference?

Seriously I couldn't find anything about these glasses. What are they like?

My favorite wineglasses are made by Glass & Co., http://www.glass-co.com/indexenglish.swf.

The glasses are made with tempered glass, and they're a single piece--there's no weld between stem and bowl. They have a nice look and feel. They can go in the dishwasher. Best of all, they run about $8-9 a piece, far less than the Riedls. These are what I bought after I broke all my Riedl glasses.

[Jenise]

So the removal of nasal hair really does make a difference?

LOL, Steve.

John, tell us more about those glasses. Where'd you buy them?

Time to buy a new set of wine glasses as we have broken a bunch over the years.

I'd like to get half decent wine glasses but not break the bank. I see the Riedel Ouverture red wine glasses and Ouverture Magnnum red wine glasses on amazon. Any one have these? Are the Magnum's just too big?

Any other suggestions?

-Aamer

The magnums are great for red wine, but TERRIBLE for Riesling. I would buy a 3 or 4 sets and match them with the wines you enjoy most often. There is no "one size fits all" wine glass. I always wonder why people spend lots of money on wine and then buy cheap wine glasses.


Prost!
Bill

Time to buy a new set of wine glasses as we have broken a bunch over the years.
Any other suggestions?

-Aamer

Hi Aamer,

I just got some nice new glasses for Christmas. They are made by Mikasa and are new type of very sturdy glass called "Kwarz." They run about $10 a stem and I really like them. I have the sauvignon blanc (universal tasting glass type), tannic wine glass (bordeaux, malbec, etc.) and the soft red glass (pinot noir). They are holding up well, are well designed for swirling, really nice to drink from and I just like the feel of them in my hand. However, these are my first really nice glasses I have had. Previous to these glasses I have been using generic red and generic white glasses.

I am certainly not an expert on this topic, but I got some glasses I like: Ravenscroft Crystal. It is nice thin crystal and it is lead-free. It is the official glass of ZAP...that is a surprise that I like what they like. http://www.ravenscroftcrystal.com/index.html

Stay away from leaded glass IMHO. My wife is a biochemistist and she thinks the concentration leached from the drinking glasses is not good. This is my opinion too and is why I like new wines rather than super old ones like those from the 60s and 70s...because of lead collars and pesticide residues. They did use DDT on grapes. I will start a topic on this someday. I am looking for some studies on pesticide residues in wine. Now that is topic drift.

Stay away from leaded glass IMHO. My wife is a biochemistist and she thinks the concentration leached from the drinking glasses is not good.

I don't have stats in front of me, but I don't think the lead in glasses would have adverse effects unless the wine sat in the glass for a two or three years -certainly not a problem at my house. The lead also contributes to structural integrity and allows for a thinner glass. Soon enough they'll even take lead out of bullets so shooting victims won't get lead poisoning


Prost!
Bill

As a class of toxins in general heavy metals are ones to stay away from because they can accumulate in tissue. Also, there is so much lead in our ambient environment (naturally and from the historic and current use in things like wheel balancing weights, car batteries, electronics, pipe solder, and old painted structures) that it makes sense to limit exposure of known sources. They took lead out of buck shoot because ducks were ingesting it. Lead really affects the development of young people.

[James Roscoe]

Locally, Bed, Bath and Beyond here in the DC area has a set of four Riedel glasses in a cardboard tube, like a mailing tube for posters. They sell tham as parrty glasses. Since one can never have too many wine glasses, I bought some. They are similer to the Riedel Ouverture Magnum, not long stemmed but very nice. The best part is they were $19.99 US and the tube makes storage pretty easy.

Riedel also has a deal with Target to sell their glasses at a cut-rate. I don't know if there are Target stores in Canada, but they are ubiquitous in most of the U.S.

Thanks so much for the thoughts everyone.

This weekend I did a little wine tasting day in the Niagara area. One of the newer wineries up here is Stratus - talked about very much here in Ontario. I liked their wines but also really liked the glasses that the tasting flights were poured in.

As it turned out, they carried the glasses they do taste flights in for sale. They were Ravenscroft bordeaux. I bought 8.

Jenise - I never really thought about how Pinots would show in these. I have one nice big bowl glass left over as a survivor from the previous series of glasses which gave in to breakage. Next time I try a Pinot I will compare side by side as an experiment.

Thanks again!

[James Roscoe]

Congratulations! It's great you got something you're happy with. Let us know how they work for you.

Let us know how the experiment works. As noted above we bought the same glass.

Sorry about the late response Steve and Jenise.

Turns out Turbo Nose is a nickname. Here is the link:

http://www.pcfallon.com/detail~product_id~TdwT05-0010.109891.asp

These glasses are amazing.

John