The Riedel Taste Test
Wine brings out the snob in otherwise normal people. And few things evoke more snobbery in the world of wine accessories than Riedel wine glasses. The whole idea of Riedel crystal is that it is tailored for the particular grape, directing the flow of the wine properly to the taste centers of your mouth.
From their site:
He discovered that the content commands the shape, whose consequence was: the correct choice of glass enhances the flavors of wines. The delivery of a wine's "message", its bouquet and taste, depends on the form of the glass. It is the responsibility of a glass to convey the wine's messages in the best manner to the human senses.
This quote, from their description of their Vinum extreme line, emphasizes the snobbery quite well:
The question is of course justified: Aren't there already enough gourmet glasses? Our answer is quite definitely no, as long as there are still containers which defile the message of the wine.
No wonder people can't stand wine snobs. (at least until the wine snobs start choosing the wine).
I used to consider this one of the most clever marketing schemes I had seen for a while. But I now know or have read the accounts of a significant number of wine professionals who swear by this philosophy and were converted by the famous Riedel taste test, wherein you try a wine in a standard-issue restaurant glass and a Riedel glass tailored to that wine. Not only that, but the glasses are beautiful. So for our wedding Melissa and I registered for some Riedel crystal.
Of course, having said all the above, you can quickly imagine that registering for Riedel is a minor nightmare. You don't just say "n red wine glasses" and "n white wine glasses." You have to choose from roughly 20-30 different types of glasses within their lines of crystal (we opted for the machine-made but thus more affordable Vinum line).
But in addition to the glasses we registered for, we bought ourselves a special engagement gift: 12 Rheinghau glasses from the Vinum line. Glasses designed for the great German Rieslings as well as Grüner veltliner, Austria's signature grape (Riedel is from Austria). And since they arrived, I've been chomping at the bit to do the Riedel taste test in our own home. Our regular wine glasses versus the Rheinghau glass, with some of our Grüner.
And I can say they definitely make a difference. The one that jumped out at me was how much more the wine's acidity came through in the Riedel. When I tried the wine out of the Riedel and then out of our regular glasses, I had the sensation of taste you get when you've paired a wine with something more acidic than it; the wine tasted "flatter", less crisp, and more washed out. What Melissa noticed was the clarity of flavor; the wine tasted similar, but the flavor was muddier in the regular glass
As she pointed out, the other interesting test would be some other piece of crystal versus a Riedel, as even the jump from glass to crystal makes a difference in the taste of the wine. But for now, I'm quite happy with our choice.
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