Talk to me about wine glasses

[WhereMyRosemaryGoes]

I've decided my wine glasses are boring. They're thin glass that's completely flat. Like everyone has these days. I want to have the sort that my grandparents had, like the picture, with bumps. What have you got? Are crystal glasses better? I once went on holiday with a chap who made a big fuss about needing to use the only crystal glass for his wine, but he was a knob so I'm not sure.

Riedel make lovely glasses, so lovely that they don’t go in the dishwasher. They are crystal but not cut.

I am too lazy for that so use shorter plain glass ones which I bought in Tesco years ago and which are very happy in the dishwasher. So I am not an expert 😁

You can quite often get sets of these on eBay etc. Or from John Lewis - Waterford or Dartingtin both vg. I like the weight of them - and it might be worth going to John Lewis to see how they feel in your hand as they’re not cheap.

Do not even think of putting them in a dishwasher- they will go cloudy and effectively be destroyed.

We have both, the cheap plain ones for every day and the heavy cut crystal ones (wedding presents) for special occasions. The crystal ones are heavy in your hand which feels lovely, they do add a sense of occasion but I wouldn't want to use them for eg a summer evening on the patio in case they get knocked over and broken. They are more for having a glass of wine with a special dinner. They look lovely in our glass fronted display cabinet too.

I got the Jamie Oliver short thick stemmed ones years ago and they have lasted great and can go in the dishwasher.

They seem a bit more expensive now!

Well the great news is that we don't have a dishwasher, so no worries there.
And as much as I'd like to pop to John Lewis, I'm afraid charity shop bargains are more my price range. I love the idea of something a bit heavier. Do you think all bumpy glasses are too expensive to end up in a charity shop, or might I get lucky?

We have lovely Dartington glass and Waterford Crystal, but my favourite is Brierley Hill. especially their flower ranges.

I like a nice heavy cut glass or crystal tumbler. I prefer my wine out of plainer glasses, though. And I have a collection of delicate art deco cut glasses for Sherry and port.

I like to find mine up in charity shops.

I love crystal. My aunty gave me some years ago- I am down to 1/4 now, but they're my favourite.

When my mum visits though, she refuses to drink her wine from them- she says it makes them taste funny!

I'd also argue that you need different reds/white glasses (unless you are a one colour house!)

I signed up to laithwaites at Christmas - got an amazing deal on wine plus four glasses. They're tumblers and lovely (just don't forget to cancel)

@WhereMyRosemaryGoes our Dartington came from TK Maxx. Everything else came from charity shops.

Worth a trip to TK maxx if you can. Charity shops may do the job too, I got some nice crystal sherry glasses from a charity shop. They're the sort of thing you have to keep an eye out for for a while though.

I've had nice wine glasses in TK maxx for £10-£15 for 6, if that's doable?

I like glasses with a nice thin rim, everything else is negotiable.

Do you have a TKMaxx near you? Mine often has lovely wine glasses which are heavily reduced.

I think charity shops are another great hunting ground for these sort of things - house clearances and older people downsizing their possessions often donate glasses as they are not particularly fashionable right now. Go and have a browse in the charity shops of nearby middle class towns!

Our local charity shop usually has some lovely sets of 'old fashioned' wine glasses. As does TK Maxx.

X post there with earl grey!

Oooo I like those Jamie Oliver ones!
Mine are bog standard off Amazon, big bowl. The ones on your pic OP look like white wine glasses, snd something my maiden aunt (who would be 110 if still alive) would have had gathering dust.
I think you want a nice weight in your hand.

Great advice - TK Maxx always have a good selection but look in charity shops first as they get so many donated they're almost giving them away.

How do red and white wine glasses differ? I thought the ones in my picture look rather small for white (but maybe I'm just a glutton).

You might get lucky in a charity shop, I just dropped off some expensive crystal whiskey glasses that were a wedding present never to my taste.

If they’re cloudy you might be able to clean them with vinegar unless they’re etched

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/a38591/how-to-clean-cloudy-drinking-glasses/

Red wine glasses are supposed to be bigger because you’re supposed to put a little bit in the bottom and let it breathe, then swirl it around to oxygenate it and sniff it and remark on the bouquet. Feel free to guzzle it down though - I do.

Try charity shops in a posh area.

There should be a word for when you travel to a posh area to raid their charity shops. I think that's what I need to do.

My daughter and I have a theory that accidental charity shops when you just happen to wander in to a new one but weren't intending to are always 100 times better than when you set out to deliberately go to one.

I love glasses. The look and feel of them. Finding the right weight for the thing you are drinking. The delicate, plain and extremely thin glass of the 1930s. Overblown cut glass or pressed glass from the 1950s. Straight-sided pint glasses for ales. Nice goblets for lager. Elegant coupes for Cava champagne. I have glasses for specific drinks - one is only used for brandy sours in the summer. I find a great joy in drinking from beautiful things, and it’s a cheap hobby as most of them come from charity shops.

I saw that style of wine glass recently in Dunelm. My own wine glasses are from pound land as unfortunately all my glasses end up smashed after a while.

Smashing is an ongoing problem here too. We had people round a couple of weeks ago and it was only when I was setting the table that I realised we were down to three wine glasses. Three!

My first thought was charity shops. I always see the green coloured stem ones in charity shops too, which I really like. Have seen quite a bit of crystal too.

Wealthy market towns with an ageing population are always a good bet for charity shops if you have any of those nearby.

@EarlGreyAndCucumber You would appreciate sundowners at my in-laws where we drink from hollow-stemmed champagne bowls that belonged to my father-in-law's grandmother, and were smuggled both to and from the Caribbean at some point. Genuinely the most stressful drink of my year.

I have these! Or very similar that we got as a wedding present. They look pretty but we only use for xmas. I prefer a smooth one

@WhereMyRosemaryGoes they sound lovely! I’m also quite happy to drink wine from tumblers. Sometimes when I’m a bit sozzled it is useful to have something less tippy, with a lower centre of gravity.