Best wine-glasses ever (for me!)

[rjsussex]

Life (mine anyway) doesn't usually leap ahead in quality like this (more often the opposite) but for a week or so I've been revelling in excitement and pleasure over two wine glasses, one for Bordeaux, one for Burgundy, that simply, impossibly, make every wine tried taste and more particularly smell better than ever.

At first I kept comparing with my hitherto benchmark Riedel Vinums (the Bordeaux and the Pinot) but soon gave up as there was no point comparing. Seriously. Even more with the Bordeaux glass than the Burgundy (the Vinum Pinot is so good - or was!) What do they do compared to Vinum? The aromatics soar and become super-pure. On the palate every component clicks together but simultaneously the newly cohesive whole steps back a little in maturity so the overall effect is a wine that has at once come together beautifully but also opened new possibilities of greater pleasure ahead. Amazing. Issan 04 and Durfort 02 were just wonderful. Ditto Domaine de Croix Beaune Greves 05. And wines that kept letting me down in terms of being too forward or flabby (Le Crock 05; Bize Savigny Guettes 05) began to sing and dance.

And I'm not alone - quite a buzz in Europe around them. The guy who runs the grand European jury wine-thingy (Mauss?) has said the same. And they're very beautiful (bigger than they look in pictures), and they're super-fine but apparently dishwasher proof. (Wine enters the mouth almost as if not through a material object - something definitely erotic - as others have said!). Hand-blown in Austria. And in the UK they're sold at c£27 each.

Zalto Denk-Art. (There's also some new-agey stuff about angles of the glasses and the Earth's geometry or something.)

Pleasure!

Richard

[DavidG]

I've got Zalto Denk-Art Champagne glasses and feel similarly about them - way better than any other Champagne glasses I've tried. Now I guess I've got to invest in the Bordeaux version...

[rjsussex]

David - do that! Am manically opening old favourites day by day and revelling at new facets, nuances and depths - this evening St Pierre 01 is just extraordinary - limpid, deep St Julien fruit and class, quite unlike earlier examples

R

[William P]

Beautiful glasses Richard. Unfortunately they would not survive too long at my house with the puppy and dishwasher. I elected to buy the new Schott Zweisel Cru Bordeaux which looks like the Riedel Sommelier Bordeaux glass but with a shorter stem. Lead free crystal and as durable as the forte series.

[tim]

Out of curiosity, have you ever actually put them in the dishwasher?

[rjsussex]

I don't have a dishwasher! But I must say if I did I wouldn't risk any £27 glass in it! (The website goes on about them being very sturdy despite the apparent delicacy and fine-ness. They do feel strong though so light.) These too are lead-free.

Richard

[Comte Flaneur]

There was a big thread on this on another site, and another conclusion is that the zalto glassware is extremely fragile, even more so than riedel.

As the risk of getting flailed, in my experience expensive stemware and women is one of the worst possible combinations...almost as bad as women and credit cards...I dont' say that lightly, it is empirically proven beyond any reasonable doubt, and otherwise I am a paragon of political correctness. So go and buy some zaltos but dont let your missus touch 'em, especially not with the washing bowl and the greasy rubber gloves...'oh look the glass broke!'

Apologies to any female viewers, no offence intended.

Dives for cover

Exeunt

[tim]

Ok, this is slightly off topic but related. The only "wine" glasses that I put into the dishwasher are my Riedel water glasses. Everything else I wash by hand. The problem is that these end up being the cleanest glasses without any spots or residue. Does anyone have a really good way to clean glasses that results in dishwasher-close cleanliness?

[rjsussex]

Comte (not rising to the bait!) - which other board has Zalto Denk-Art discussion?

(This evening, good but not great Barbera is magicked in the Burgundy glass.)

Thanks

Richard

[William P]

squires board

[DavidG]

Tim - which glasses are cleaner - the dishwasher ones or the hand-washed ones? I get spot-free sparkly-clean glasses by rinsing with hot water after hand-washing and then drying/polishing with a lint-free cloth while they are still wet from the rinse. Washing glasses is kind of a Zen thing. Don't mind it at all, kind of relaxes me. Funny it doesn't work that way with dishes or dirty pots/pans, but washing wine glasses I guess is a labor of love.

[Comte Flaneur]

Richard, Bill, also on this one:

http://www.wine-pages.com/ubb/ultimateb ... 1;t=023304