Do Wine Glasses Really Matter?

I ran across this “Wine Glass Demonstration and Wine Tasting led by Georg Riedel” event that’ll be held here in far NW Austin on Monday. It’s so close it would probably be kinda fun to go but I’m not quite sure I really wanna shell out $125 for it. On the plus side, you get 4 Riedel glasses to take home as part of the tasting. These are supposedly valued at $95 so the price of admission is somewhat understandable. There’s also some appeal in meeting Georg Riedel. I mean, they make some pretty cool glassware.

Though, do you really think that the glassware makes all that much difference? This old Slate article seems to suggest he found a difference. In fact in my own experience, on a visit to Sister Creek Vineyards here in the Texas Hill Country a few years ago, I was sold on the idea too and subsequently purchased some Riedel glassware. I don’t know if they still do it, but at Sister Creek they would let you taste their wines in two different sets of glassware – one being Riedel. There was a difference. Obviously they were trying to sell you some stemware at the same time as they sold you some wine, but there was a noticable difference.

I think to some degree though there’s got to be some junk science to this, right? I think there might be some power of suggestion that is involved. Though based on my own experience, I’d agree the shape of the glass does in fact make some difference. Riedel’s own web site has some interesting reading on the subject to suggest there is some science behind the ideas.

Ultimately, I think I’ll save my $125 and put it toward some wine to go in the glassware.