Do I really need a special kind of glass to drink my wine?

There are many ways to answer that. First, people all over the world drink from all sorts of things - ceramic bowls, wood boxes, skinny glass tubes, fat bowls. So you can drink from whatever makes you happy and it's fine

It's always about your nose, which is how you sense most flavors. Your taste bud only senses sweet, salty, sour, those basic types of things. Your nose is what senses "roses" and "tobacco" and so on. So a key function of a cup / glass is to help your nose smell things well. A second function is to minimize alcohol fumes so your nose doesn't burn and you can actually sense the flavors

Glasses like "Riedel" work carefully on that task. Different types of wines have different types of aromas and the glasses help balance those aromas to your nose while holding back the alcohol.

It's easy to see for yourself if you personally care. Get your normal glass or mug or whatever. Then buy just ONE Riedel glass (or borrow one from a friend). Pour your favorite wine into both. Taste both. Can you taste a difference? Which do you prefer? It's all about how YOU enjoy the flavors.

Thank you!

Much has been said about Riedel glasses as the epitome of glassware. I have a friend who even brings her Riedel glass to a bowling alley.

That being said, yes, Riedel glasses are nice. However, does it really make sense to have 8 different sets of wine glasses - one for chardonnay, one for shiraz, one for cab, etc. I think most wine critics will agree that a good quality, thin, stemmed glass - smaller bowl for white and larger bowl for red are sufficient for most wines. But I guess you do have to also have champagne flutes and cordial glasses to drink port or other dessert wines in. So you're up to a full china cabinet already.

I imagine it depends on your drinking habits. If someone loves Chardonnay and tends to drink Chardonnay 90% of the time then they are probably perfectly set with a few Chardonnay glasses. They can drink their other wines, the few times they have them, in those glasses and they will be quite good enough. Why bother getting other expensive glasses if you'll rarely use them?

I adore port and drink port all the time. So I definitely have a few Riedel port glasses. However someone who rarely if ever touches port probably wouldn't want to have them taking up space.

We have a lot of Champagne flutes here so when we do Champagne tastings we have flutes for everyone. So I think we have at least 20. I'm sure that's more than most people really need

I will try that, buying just one glass to see how it does with my favorite wine.

Hi, I am new on here. I recently bought a White Zine by Beringer, I am going to try it tonight with a fettucini alfredo. Anyway, my question is what is your opinion of the stemless wine glasses? I am overseas here in Turkey and our BX doesn't have much, however I may venture out and look for them elsewhere. Ok, so I look forward to hearing from you. Thank You. : )

Stemless wine glass? UNless you have a need for the stemless variety -- such as living on a ship -- why bother. Just get a normal stemmed wine glass

"UNless you have a need for the stemless variety -- such as living on a ship -- why bother"

that's pretty much what I thought too, especially when one considers that stemless wineglasses sell for approximately the same price as those which the makers have gone to the trouble of attaching to a stem.

Then I was in a local dollar store and I saw some nicely shaped glasses. I don't think they were intended as wine glasses, but their shape approximates that of a Burgundy balloon. What they hey, a buck a throw, I bought a couple.

Have to say, when I am sitting down to a dish of beans and rice with the back half of yesterday's VdP Cabernet (or some other rustic dish and wine), this stemless glass looks good a third full of red and works as nicely. (Have to go a third full because of volume issues - can't get a good swirl more filled).

So, while Riedel's absurd stemless have no place in my cabinet (except as a gift, what the heck), there is a place (though not in that cabinet) for a stemless glass.

Works well with olives and cheese too.

The bank we belong to sends us a pair of the stemless wine glasses each Christmas as a thank-you gift. They are nice because they dishwash very easily - and there's little chance of the stems breaking, which does happen occasionally with the actual stemmed Riedel

I was always a stickler for champagne in fluts and crystal to be sure. The bubbles cling and last so long. Its beautiful but after reading an article I tried it in a white wine glass. The larger surface exposed more surface to the air and gave the wine a new charater to me. So find the glass that works for you. It is fun to experiment sometimes.

It definitely is a lot of fun to play with different glasses and see what you enjoy. For me I enjoy the bubbles of the Champagne so I would "err" on the side of making them last as long as possible.

Yeh, I have to agree I regularly seek out glassware bargains and I am getting quite the collection. What do you guys think to stemless wine glasses? there's been some speculation as to whether it negatively affects the flavor of your wine?

I don't want to be holding my glass with my hand. I want my hand and its warmth away from the glass itself. Hopefully the wine is at the right temperature and I want to do as little as possible to impact that.