Riedel....again

Okay, one of my New Year's resolutions was not to bash Riedel anymore. I made it (nearly) two months....

I've posted before on Riedel and before and before and before.....so its clearly a pet peeve of mine, but I couldn't resist another jab when I read Jim Laube's recent column. (I'd post a link, but the Spectator charges for everything now, so I'll just use excerpts):

"If you want to make all of your wines smell and taste better, there's an easy solution. Make sure you're using top-flight stemware.

Good glasses help bring out the best in any wine. While it's true that wine, even great wine, can be enjoyed out of any vessel, you owe it to yourself to splurge on at least a couple of upscale glasses to taste what I mean....At home, I use Riedel and Spiegelau glasses (which you can easily order online), and to simplify matters I've narrowed it down to two--the Vinum Bordeaux and Vinum Chardonnay/Pinot Noir glasses. I've yet to find a table wine that didn't perform well in one or the other.

But at my office in Napa, for official Wine Spectator blind tastings, I use an old favorite. It's not very pretty, but it's effective. It's a bowl-shaped, stemless glass with a small punt at the bottom, and an indentation for the thumb on the side. It's called The Wine Taster Glass from a line of stemware known as les impitoyables. I always use this glass, and have for decades. ........with its narrow opening and design, it does highlight wine aromas better than any glass I've used. That's why I've stuck with it for all these years."

Do you mean to tell me that the Wine Pope (or is he a Bishop and Parker is the Pope? I can never remember....) doesn't have a complete set of Riedel glasses for each varietal?!? How can he be missing the subtle nuances that a specially-crafted Zinfandel glass can give him? Think of how much he is missing as the Zin spills willy-nilly from a Vinum Bordeaux glass onto all the wrong parts of the tongue! And this abomination, this "les impitoyables", its not made for any varietal at all! The heresy! And from the Pope/Bishop himself?!?!?

(The preceeding paragraph may have contained sarcasm, read the links above to be certain).