A Glass by Any Other Name

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The hobby of wine collecting is a perfectly capitalist diversion.  And what I really mean by that is that it’s a disease. You can never collect enough to be satisfied and no matter how many ducats you bring home on a monthly basis there is always one bottle just out of reach of the wine budget.

And then there is all of the “stuff” that goes along with wine collecting.

Namely, the glassware involved in consuming said wine.

For example, though it hardly qualifies as dizzying, the stemware collection on retailer Williams-Sonoma’s Web site is a haughty enough gathering of delicate-lipped glasses to sufficiently make novice wine drinkers nervous about choosing the “right” stemware, and conversely more serious drinkers go into OCB mode, or Obsessive Compulsive Buying mode. Even Target has a Riedel collection that differentiates between just plain red, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Merlot.

So does it really make a difference if you drink a Merlot out of a Burgundy glass? Is this a matter of pre-eminent importance?

Depends on whom you consult. Max Riedel of the Riedel stemware empire would say, yes. But frankly, folks, there are people out there who drink Champagne out of everyday wine glasses and make no apologies for it (including yours truly).

Gut Check spoke to New York-based wine writer and knower of all things vinified, Alice Feiring, about the need for all those darned glasses.

“I love glasses, I’ve always loved glasses,” she says. And while she is a fan of having the right glass on hand for the right mood, when it comes to compulsion about using a different glass for every obscure varietal out there, Feiring says not necessary.

“I’ve never bought into a different glass for a different varietal… the idea of correcting wine to a glass is ridiculous.” She muses it might have been worth it if stems were your fixation in a more flush economy, “maybe back in the day when people were looking for excuses to spend money.”

The current economic doldrums excluded, however, there really is no need to have more than two types of glasses on hand.

“A wine glass is like a bow to a violin.  It’s almost about the way [the wine glass] feels in your hand.”

How about you folks out there? Have you had to pair down the wine glass collection to match the economic downturn or have the cupboards continued to burst with stemware at a steady pace?

As for me I won’t be updating our rag tag wine glass menagerie culled from chain stores, thrift stores and wine festivals any time soon.  But I wouldn’t say no to a nice set of six Zinfandel glasses from the Riedel Vinum collection. Y’know, to suit my everchanging moods.

Tags: Alice Feiring, Amy Loeffler, Gut Check, Northern Virginia Magazine, wine glasses