Riedel: Does It Make A Difference If The Glass Makes A Difference?

Maybe. But probably not.

These three links in today’s News Fetch raise that issue:

• Wine: Can the glass make a difference?
• Riedel becomes official glassware for IMW
• A sommelier tastes all the TJ’s Two-Buck Chuck

First of all, Riedel glasses are so improbably expensive and impossibly fragile that widespread adoption among consumers is not going to happen. Not in this universe, anyway.

Second, if and when Riedel truly does make a difference and gets adopted by sommeliers, wine raters and other recommenders, then they will be rating wines in a way that damn few of their customers or readers will be drinking the wine. Thus, potentially misleadingly and potentially over-positive ratings on what may be ordinary plonk in most consumer glasses.

If the glass really does make a difference, then ratings in Riedel are valid only in glasses that most wine drinkers will never, ever own or drink from.

I have enjoyed wine in many countries and in many containers and glasses. Some of the most memorable have been in Italy’s back country poured into tumblers from a gigantic fiasco bigger than a Fiat 500. Obviously the experience added to the enjoyment, but I have tried the experiment at home and find that a good wine is a good wine is a good wine regardless of the glass.

The bottom line is: if you’re not tasting and evaluating wine under the same or similar conditions as your readers and customers, you are far less likely to make valid recommendations.

And if the glass does make a difference, make sure it’s as close as possible as those found among those who receive your recommendations.

Third … and ss a final thought, should Riedel have been the choice to make a difference here: A sommelier tastes all the TJ’s Two-Buck Chuck?