Wine With Wreg


I know some of you will think I am a dandy boy but I really enjoy good stemware and using the proper stemware with the appropriate drink.

For those of you who drink everything from a Styrofoam cup you may want to come back another day.

The other night I met a group of guys at a very nice restaurant and we all had drinks at the bar before dinner. This was a top shelf place like what you’d expect AIG executives to be eating at after a 75 Billion Dollar injection of capital from the Federal Government.

My host picked a wine, a nice bold cabernet and the bartender picked up a shiny, spotless big cabernet glass and poured the plum colored nectar. She sat the glass down in front of me and I beheld its beauty.

I swirled, sniffed and sipped this classic varietal holding the glass by the stem as to not dirty the glass with fingerprints and I didn’t want to disturb the cellaring temperature of the wine by the warming heat of my hand touching the bowl.

Ah, this is mighty fine. All is right with the world.

Then we proceeded to the table and my host ordered a bottle of the same wine for dinner.  

The waiter began to pour the wine in what appeared to be much inferior wine glasses with thick glass sides, small bowls and short stems. My host and I at the same time stopped him and asked for an upgrade of wine glasses which he gladly did.

I couldn’t understand why he would whip out the Appleby glasses when he saw the quality glasses we were drinking from at the bar.   

The same goes for beer. Why not drink from a clean clear pilsner glass where you can see the bubbles and foam if you have a choice over drinking directly from the can or bottle.

If you want a small collection of inexpensive and elegant stemware go to Worldmarket where you can find reasonable cabernet glasses for $6.99 each.  I keep 8 around and always buy another every time I go there to replace and chipped or broken rims.

My glasses clean very well, sparkling and shiny using Cascade Double action in our dish washer.

Let me take snobbery up another notch. If you are about to pour a really fine wine it pays to gently breathe into an empty glass and then smell for detergent. Nothing ruins a good wine like soap residue. 

Lastly, acrylic glasses don’t work. There are plastic, don’t go there. The exception to the rule is a high quality Tervis Tumbler with a mixed drink in a warm climate.  

15 comments:

terri said...

I've got a good box of wine in my fridge. Which glass goes best for this kind?

(I kid! All that's in my fridge right now is Mich Golden Light and LaBatt's Blue and diet coke.)

Ken said...

Huh?..............

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

I was wondering what you might say Micky.

Ken said...

I jest, when at a nice meal I like my beer in pilsner glass too.
Not much of a wine drinker.

Anonymous said...

Oh Reggie I can't believe you have not heard of Riedel wine glasses! they are the only ones us California wine snobs drink from .
http://www.riedel.com/
Try them , you'll never settle for anything less :D
Hank & Denice, Ca Buds

Anonymous said...

They are plastic. 'There are plastic' makes no sense...

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Hey Denise,

They carry Riedel glasses here but only the upper end stuff and they can be so fragile and expensive.

I ended up breaking so many that I compromised at a moderately prised glass that held up better.

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Anonymous…. Apologies for my faults; more will follow I promise.

My brain thought I was typing “They’re plastic” and my proofreader in my head said “Screw it its close enough for my readers”.

Then real Wreggie said when shown the error of his ways said, “Screw it. I’m too lazy to change it”, hoping that anonymous will writhe in their perfect world seeing an uncorrected grammar fault.

TerryC said...

Oh come on, Wreg..... Change it.... PLEASE....

You have me dreaming of a nice glass of wine. We went to Bacchus the other night, and it was yummy as usual.

We had sashimi and a salad for appetizers and I ate my salad with chopsticks. What does your manners book say about that?

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

No mention of chop sticks on that blog article.

I try to use them but my hands do get tired.

I had an Asian friend from CA tell me once that cultured Asians hold their chop sticks at the very end creating long sticks. Uncultured Asians hold their sticks closer down to the food.

How do you hold them Terry?

Michael said...

Terry is always harassing me when I cup the bowl of my red wine glass in my hand, rather than hold it by the stem. But here, they will often over-chill red wine. We don't have cellars and few places have proper wine coolers to keep the bottles at cellar temp, so the reds are colder than you want. I hold the bowl to warm the wine enough for it to open up. But it still annoys Terry.

Even worse, are these faux-trendy places with STEMLESS red wine glasses. Its just a bowl with a flat bottom. You have no choice but to hold the bowl. Doesn't bother me too much, but Terry hates it. Incidentally, I think even Riedel makes some stemless wine glasses.

Unknown said...

Friday night we had a Tastefully Simple party.

We had a $8.99 Franzia Box of wine served in whatever we had laying around and some Miller Lite from a can.

Touch economic times call for touch economic drinking!!!!

Unknown said...

Oh and both got everyone successfully hammered :)

TerryC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mr zig said...

I hear ya on the importance of the right glass for everything! - but sometimes you can't find a glass, so I say a straw in the bottle, and away we go - just kidding! - it really bugs me when restaurants give you crappy glasses!