The Wine Knows

At the risk of wine blasphemy, I buy my wine glasses (tumblers) for every day use at Cost Plus here in Olympia. They cost 99¢! Not only am I a klutz, but I have rambunctious dogs who were always knocking over the stemmed glasses and spilling wine all over the carpet. So the tumblers sit squat on the coffee table and we have yet to have had another doggy accident. If one gets broken in the dishwaher or is dropped, the replacement is just 99¢. Quite affordable on my public school teacher budget!

My mother does have 4 stems of Waterford, and when I use those, I do recommend the air drying after rinsing in very very hot water.

Recommendation on glasses....buy the Riedel "O" series, stemless! I use them in my tasting room, and have had nothing but positive comments! They are fun, and virtually indestructable, especially when it comes to washing. The only drawback is you need to work on your swirling technique if you are used to stems!

Trey

I always do a second light rinse with fileterd or distilled water.
I wash in water as hot as I possibly can tolerate with minimal soap.
The glass dries perfectly clear and needs no polishing.

I agree with the air drying, Andy! We broke several pinot noir glasses early on while handwashing the inside of the glass with a washcloth. The crystal is very thin, so you have to be very careful. I tend to cup the glass in my hand (to give "backpressure" on whatever area I am wiping), fill with very hot water and a mild detergent, gently wipe inside and out, and then rinse in scalding hot water. Then, I roll up the edge of a soft dish towel, set the glass on the rolled up part at an angle (at our house, leaned up against the cracks between several cannisters lined up on our counter, for stability), and wait a few hours. I then finish drying and removing spots very carefully with a cheap paper towel. (The expensive paper towels tend to leave smears for some reason. The cheapo's seem to work much better for me!). Then, it is back into the cabinet. We have six kids, so we NEVER leave those glasses out!

Tim

ps.... the 6 kids may explain why we open a bottle most every night!

We break way too many glasses/plates/bowls. My husband is just used to clearing out the kitchen and searching for shards of whatever wherever. With wine glasses it is usually the tip factor for me - a gentle nudge from something else on the countertop sends it careening.

We restocked our wine glasses at Christmas time when my sister sent a gift certificate for a place online that had our glasses. I am proud to say that in nearly 5 months we have not lost one.

(Knocking on wood.)