WTN: What a difference a glass makes

[Jenise]

2018 Faustino Rioja Faustino VII Blanco Viura, Macabeo
Bought two bottles for $12 each about two weeks ago. Drank both over the weekend.

Bottle #1, Saturday night: consumed out of Riedel chardonnay glasses--small, narrow, at a White Rioja Zoom meeting with our L.A. wine group. The wine tasted of canned pears, raw peas and something candied and floral not unlike what I don't love about some cavas. Tasted inexpensive--didn't hate it but certainly didn't love it. Would not seek it out again.

Bottle #2, Sunday night: so last night when we still felt like one more glass of wine after dinner but preferred cold and refreshing, we went into that "let's just get rid of it" zone many of you are probably familiar with and opened that second bottle. After all, it was already cold and wouldn't require a separate trip to the garage/cellar. This time, though, we drank it out of the Grassl burgundy glasses we'd had our dinner wine in. It was a whole different wine: attractive nose of proofing yeast, orange blossoms and pear. On the palate, complex yellow fruits and a mildly bitter, hoppy note leading into a dry finish. Tasted like $30ish, a perfect end to the night.

I know we've all experienced the glassware difference, but this is as night-and-day a difference as I've ever encountered. I actually poured a bit of mine back into one of those small Riedels from the night before just to make sure bottle variation wasn't involved--it wasn't.

Grassls aren't cheap. But what a good investment if one can find the magic in a $12 wine another glass missed completely.

Need to go back and pour wine from one bottle into both styles of glasses to confirm that the glass made the difference and the first bottle wasn't just 'off'.

But interesting!

[Jenise]

Bill, I did, and said so, you missed this sentence: "I actually poured a bit of mine back into one of those small Riedels from the night before just to make sure bottle variation wasn't involved--it wasn't."

[David M. Bueker]

The Grassl glasses are very good. I have not found their Burg glass to be a huge step up over other good Burgundy glassware, but the Mineralité glass is lights out fantastic.

[Jenise]

When I bought mine, they were out of the Mineralite. I guess this explains why! But I do love the Burgundy glass. Unless there's a specific need to drink out of something else, it's my favorite all-around shape. Bob chose the other small glasses on Saturday night because of limited space in front of the computer where we and our snacks sat like a couple of magpies in front of the webcam.

What I've found impressive about Grassl's Burgundy glass is how well EVERYTHING drinks out of it, including 30+ year old Bordeaux which would not have been my choice (Bob set the table, and he chose it). It's more universal than the Riedel burg bowls we have, and I wasn't unhappy with those.

[David M. Bueker]

My current “regular glass” is the Liberté.

Have several types of Riedel glasses, none of which I purchased. Some were gifts, some were swag from trade events. Most are fragile, but seem to make a difference when matched to the "target" varietals. For wines we define as splurge, out come the Riedel glasses.

We have a collection of glasses sorted by everyday, weekend, and special occasion. A few years ago the number of glasses was >80 so about 20 were trashed. Running out of storage space.

And, we have glasses that were given to us by relatives and aren't really geared toward wine tasting. But we use and love them anyway. Sentimentality sometimes rules.

[Jenise]

I dare not consider how many glasses we have, but we have one kitchen cupboard with about 15 of our most commonly used glasses in them for daily options and one bank 10 feet long, 42 inches (three shelves) high of cabinets that contain nothing but the rest of our glassware. All good stuff, too. Special squat glasses for port, special small high stems for things like Sauternes, too, but mostly glasses meant for table wines. Probably 150-200 in all. We severely need to use/break/reduce. In fact months back we committed ourselves to reducing--no matter HOW tempting, no new glasses!!! When they break, bye, good riddance, let's celebrate having one less glass!!!!

And then at Christmas I bought 12 Grassls which make almost all those other glasses unneccessary. [grabbing rope, hanging self]