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What are some of your favorite wine glasses?
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One of my absolute favorites is Zalto's Burgundy glass.
I am also in love with Gabriel-Glas's universal glass.
With the help of this sub (many thanks to the user who answered me), I am going to get Riedel's Grand Cru glass (displayed here).
What are your favorite glasses? I am trying not to get crazy collecting glasses because I prefer to spend my money on wines.
Top Comment: Gabriel Glas gold is my daily universal and I’m obsessed with it. The stem is impossibly thin it looks crazy.
Best affordable Wine Glasses
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Hi all - i am new to wine and would like to get some grownup glasses for daily use/hosting. I have done some research - Gabriel Glas, Zalto, Spiegelau (Definition), Stolzel, Galvin (and GV Home). Unfortunately, I don’t think I can afford Zalto or Gabriel Glas Gold yet due to the price. I have narrowed down to 3 options:
- Gabriel Glas Standart: $35/stem
- Glasvin Universal: $40/stem
- GV Home Universal: $19/stem (according to the site, it’s heavier and thicker than Glasvin Universal but still hand blown. The GV version weighs 130 g, rim thickness is 0.8mm , and the stem is 6mm. Whereas Glasvin weighs 100 g and stem is about 4.4mm.
Now my questions are: do I really need hand blown wine glasses? Or GG Standart would beat some more affordable hand blown glass? Is GV Home Universal going to be significantly different than the highly raved Glasvin?
Not sure if that matters but we don’t really drink expensive wine.
Thank you in advanced!
Top Comment: Founder of Glasvin here. Yes GV Home is going to be significantly different than Glasvin. It’s not as big of a difference as Gabriel Gold vs Standart (the difference there is huge, and that’s reflected in the price of $90 vs $37). GV Home will be a very nice glass but it will not be the same level as Glasvin/Zalto/Gabriel Gold.
Best wine glass?
Main Post: Best wine glass?
Top Comment: Zalto Universal for me.
My 10 favorite wine glasses
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So after 30 years in the wine and spirits business, these are the ten wine glasses I wouldn’t be without. Prejudices: I like elegant, well balanced glasses, that feel good in the hand AND look good on the table. Glass should be very thin, but not excessively so, you don’t want to feel like you might accidentally crush the bowl in your hand. I much prefer gently curved tulip-like bowls to more angular and ‘modern’ designs. I dislike exaggeratedly long stems for both practical and ergonomic reasons. I'm partial to Riedel Sommeliers, Vinum and Veritas, partly no doubt because I've used them for decades. I dislike most of the newer Riedel ranges, especially the Veloce (too angular), the Black Tie (vulgar) the Fatto a Mano (even more vulgar), the Winewings (transparently Josephinenhütte knockoffs), the High Performance (far too much stem) and the O range (not nearly enough stem).
Hope these notes might be useful if you're looking to add to your glass collection. And would of course love to hear your comments/heartfelt agreement/bitter criticism...
Riedel Sommeliers Burgundy Grand Cru -
Riedel Sommeliers Bordeaux Grand Cru -
Living history - these are the grandparents of all current varietal specific glasses. The Riedel Sommeliers range was launched under that name in 1973, but these two models were actually developed by Claus Riedel nearly two decades earlier, in 1958 and 1959. Almost comedically large, but they lend a sense of theatre to a tasting or dinner like absolutely nothing else. The Sommeliers range is not everyone’s cup of tea, and they’re expensive - but because each model is generally priced identically regardless of size, these two enormous glasses - big enough to even serve as decanters if you wish - feel like better value.
Riedel Vinum Riesling/Chianti -
The single best everyday workhorse glass. Elegant, perfectly proportioned and surprisingly robust. Perfect for Riesling, Viognier, Chablis, Muscadet, lighter chardonnays and most other whites, perfect for all Loire whites and reds, perfect for Chianti and most lighter reds, perfect for rosé, very good for dessert wines. Pretty good for champagne, pretty good for fortified wines. Fine for Bordeaux and even at a push Burgundy reds - just pour a much smaller portion than usual - and really surprisingly good for fragile and very old reds. Almost nothing shows badly in these glasses. If I had to own just one wine glass, it would be this one. Even works for water.
Riedel Veritas New World Pinot Noir -
A truly great glass for top Burgundy and New World Pinot, and equally so for Barolo. The design of the bowl of the Conterno Sensory is perhaps fractionally even better, but while wonderful to hold, I find the Sensory looks top heavy and clumsily-proportioned on the table. The Riedels strike the perfect balance between beauty and function. Recommended by Riedel and others for rosé Champagne too, but I personally find them too big and too broad for this.
Riedel Veritas Oaked Chardonnay -
The more open bowl is noticeably more effective for full-bodied white Burgundy than the narrower-mouthed Pinot glass. The Veritas version of this glass is significantly larger and much finer than the Vinum version, which feels thick and clunky in comparison. Curiously, the Veritas model is also thinner and larger than the Sommeliers Montrachet glass, which has a much heavier stem.
Riedel Veritas Syrah -
A simply gorgeous-looking glass, and a great compromise between beauty and practicality. The Vinum version is the exact same design, cheaper, and only a tiny fraction less elegant. Perfect of course for all Rhone reds, for all Southern French reds, and for New World Syrah, but also most definitely for Bordeaux and New World Cabernet and Merlot (I prefer its more tapered and elegant bowl to the Riedel Vinum and Veritas Bordeaux glasses). A must-have glass and, Burgundy aside, the one I drink most of my best reds from. If I had to own just two wine glasses, it would be this and the Vinum Riesling/Chianti.
Riedel Veritas Champagne -
Buy pretty flutes for serving sparkling wine at parties, cheap enough that you won’t mind a couple getting broken each time. But for drinking top Champagnes at the table (and equally, top Franciacorta and Cava), you need a generous tapered tulip bowl, not a flute, and the Veritas Champagne glass does the job perfectly and with great elegance. Also absolutely excellent for Sauternes and other dessert wines (I prefer these over the Riedel Sommeliers Sauternes glasses).
Josephinenhütte #2 -
I adore the Josephinenhütte range - the most interesting glasses of the ‘post-Riedel’ generation I think. They don’t necessarily photograph well, but in the hand, they’re imo more striking and beautiful than Zalto, and simply wonderful to drink from. Expensive and relatively fragile, so usually saved for tasting/drinking with more knowledgable friends. If I had to choose just two from the range of four, it would be the Universal glass #2, and the Champagne glass #4.
Zalto Gravitas Omega -
I’m not a worshipper at the cult of Zalto, but I wouldn’t be without these. More than just a novelty, their design forces you to pay meticulous attention to the wine and the glass not just when you pour, but each and every time you sip, and then, very, very carefully, replace the glass on the table. Not for everyday or even frequent use, but always a showstopper when you do use them.
Riedel Sommeliers Grüner Veltliner -
A luxury glass that no-one ‘needs’, but I think the most sheerly beautiful glass in the whole Sommeliers range. The green stems are the only colored glass in the standard Sommelier lineup. Perfect it goes without saying for Gru-Ve, but also of course an enhanced experience for any white wine you’d usually drink in a Vinum Riesling glass.
Riedel Sommeliers Stone Fruit Eau de Vie -
OK, an 11th glass, but it’s for eau de vie not wine. The unique ‘chimney’ design is both visually striking and very effective, minimizing alcohol and allowing you to focus on the fruit. A Rochelt apricot eau de vie drunk from this glass is one of the greatest tastes in the whole world of spirits.
Glass care: Don’t hand wash anything, don’t hand polish anything, everything goes into the dishwasher, stacked carefully without touching each other. You need a modern dishwasher with a glass-cycle, and good quality dish-tabs. Nothing will break, and they will all come out spotless and sparkling.
Top Comment: Riedel’s biggest accomplishment is convincing people that owning this many different glasses is remotely necessary
What wine glasses do you use?
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I always hear the classics like Gabriel and Zalto and assume almost everyone had them in hand atleast once at this point. Besides the 'classics' what wine glasses do you use regularly or only on certain occasions?
I do regularly use the Gabriels as well but I also really like Riedel Veloce glasses, they aren't super expensive and feel very well made and are lightweight. How about you?
Top Comment: Schott Zweisel
Does glass type matter?
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I’m fairly new to wine and I’ve been seeing wine glasses in stores of different sizes and shapes labeled as glasses for specific types of wine (Cabernet, Pinot noir, rosé, etc.) and was curious as to how much this actually matters. Also any other tips for someone about as novice as you could possibly be are appreciated.
Top Comment: Get a glass that is as thin as possible while being as sturdy as possible. Most important is that the bowl is big enough to aerate the wine without it coming over the rim, and that the glass is thin enough to see clearly through to the wine. To be honest a lot of the hype around glassware comes down to aesthetics (which really increases enjoyment, especially once you’re deep in the hobby). That said, a great glass to start with is the regular old Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glass—if that’s too expensive for now, try the similar glass from Spieglau. If you have money to spend, go for Zalto, Markthomas, Gabriel Glass, or one of the new thin fancy Spieglau that are made to replicate the thinness of Zaltos. Schott Zwiesel makes some nice lines as well. Never buy a glass that will make you sad when they break because they will always break—if that’s the case, the glass is too expensive.
Red glasses vs white glasses?
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To quote Peter Venkmen: "I'm fuzzy on the whole good bad thing." You can drink out of both of them, but reds have their glasses, whites have theirs. What makes them different? Does a red glass change the profile of a white?
Yes, it's a newbie question, but I'm thinking of buying some nice glasses and just wondering if it's worth the price. Thanks for reading.
Top Comment: It’s a good question. The short answer is: yes, different glasses change how the wine inside them is experienced. What you want are glasses that enhance the kind of wines you drink, at a price point that means you can readily replace them if you accidentally break one. The tricky part is that a) there’s a lot of reasonable disagreement about how many different types of wine glasses the average wine enthusiast needs, and b) that a lot of companies (most notably Riedel) will tell you you need special wine glasses for every variety you drink. I’m personally of the opinion that you only really need two styles of wine glasses in your cupboard: a wider one for wines that need a little help to express their aromas, and a narrower one for wines that don’t. The colour of the wine really doesn’t have much to do with the question of aromatic expressiveness: I serve big cabernets in the same (narrow) glassware as I do delicate rieslings, because neither of them needs any help to have their aroma leap out of the glass. Richer and more textural whites and (most) lighter reds go into the wider style of glass because they need that help to express their aromas. Rosés, sparkling wines, dessert wines and so on I’ll evaluate on a case-by-case basis, but they’re usually going in the narrower glass. As far as brands go: I personally love Spiegelau’s ‘Definition’ series, particularly the universal stem (narrower) and the burgundy stem (wider), which are practically indistinguishable from Zaltos at a much cheaper price point, but you can and should go for whatever feels right in terms of your budget and personal aesthetic preferences. Look for something that has a cut rim rather than a rolled rim, and a nice big bowl—nothing worse than tiny little glasses that give you no room to swirl!
If you were to get one set of white wine glasses and one set of red wine glasses for your house (and don’t want universal), are you going for one made for light-bodied white/red or full-bodied red?
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I’m in the market for new wine glasses. Looking for beauty, utility, design, basically amazing looking glasses that will hold up and show off wine beautifully. However, I don’t really want five sets (light-bodied white, full-bodied white, light-bodied red, full-bodied red, and champagne), so I’m aiming to get one set of Champagne/sparkling glasses, one set of white general, and one set of red general. And I don’t know whether it’s better, for example, to drink a Burgundy from a Cab glass or a Cab from a Burgundy glass.
What I can’t decide, especially on the red, is whether to go for more of a light-bodied, Burgundy glass or more of a heavy-bodied, Cabernet glass. I drink a bit of both, probably leaning more towards lighter reds (Pinot Noir, Gamay, Nebbiolo) but also a decent amount of more full-bodied Rioja and Napa Cabs/Bordeaux. On the white side, I like a variety, but do drink a decent amount of Chardonnay, but more Riesling, Albariño, and Gewurztraminer.
Any thoughts on which two sets to pickup (light-bodied or full-bodied)? Also, any suggestion on your favorite make/model of glasses?
Top Comment: Why the aversion to universals? If you insist on having two sets, I would at least probably do like universals plus Burg glasses (or whatever other more specialized glassware makes your heart sing)
Thoughts on glasses?
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Upgrading from my $1 red wine glasses, for the best I guess. I'm a bit confused between this couple good-known brands, I already have a box of small digestive Swiesel glasses which I love, and have used lots of Spiegelau at restaurants. I am not sure if I should get Riedel or instead something "cheap" but better than local dollar store glasses such as those JBHO. Fun fact: I thogut those Amazon glasses were from LCBO.
Top Comment: We use these and love them https://www.mygabrielglas.com/en-ca .
Wine glasses
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Hi guys, what’s your favorite glasses?
I’m currently using some relatively affordable Spiegelau glasse, but want to eventually upgrade for special wines.
I mainly drink red, and like to vary between some Italian Valpolicella / Amarone, Syrah (Rhone), Rioja, and with time expect moving towards some Bordeaux blends and burgundy/pinot noirs.
I have seen many different brands coming through (Zalto, Gabriel Glas, Josephinen, Riedel), but find it tough to tell what I should be looking for, and which glass shape based on the above varietals, as I don’t anticipate affording multiple sets of these.
(Bonus question for your favorite decanters!)
Top Comment: Gabriel Glas Standart for day-to-day and dinner parties. I find them exceptional, especially at $34 a glass. Grassl Vigneron series for nice evenings with my wife. In particular the Grassl Cru is the most perfectly proportioned burgundy glass to my eye and hands.