2-for-Tuesday: Oneida Compose Wine Glass Sets (Red, White, Flute, or Stemless)
- Your choice of red, white, stemless, or flutes
- You really only need one kind, plus the flutes
- Dishwasher safe, as much as anything can really be safe in this crazy mixed-up world
- Won’t make your crappy wine taste better
We'll say it: the emperor has no glass.
You can’t fault the glassware industry’s marketing acumen. In 1973, the evil geniuses at Riedel introduced a line of stemware based on the concept that every varietal of wine deserved its own glass. That idea quickly became part of the daunting mass of “connoisseur” “wisdom” separating wine experts from the merely sloshed. At the very least, you need different glasses for reds and whites or you might as well be drinking from a Solo cup, right?
No. Not right. Wine Spectator columnist Dr. Vinifera says “At home I use the same type of glass for both red and white wines, and I’ve been out to plenty of places that employ the one-size-fits-all method, which is fine by me.” Wine Folly recommends “a set of 6 red wine glasses and a set of 4-6 Champagne flutes. Take my word for it; that’s all you really need.” And according to the wine glass guide at Vinepair, “every home really just needs two sets of wine glasses: a set of sparkling wine flutes and a set of all-purpose glasses that are great for both red and white.”
Champagne flutes make sense. A tall, skinny glass means the bubbly has less surface area, so it retains its bubbliness longer. But different glasses for red and white? Only if you’re a restaurant. Or you want to use one type for fancy water goblets. Or you have a display case that needs filling. Or you need to launder your endangered-animal-smuggling profits into something perfectly legitimate like wine glasses.
So if you’re starting your wine glass collection, buy one pair of two-packs (yeah, it’s confusing, but ordering one of today’s deal gets you four glasses) of the flutes, and one of your choice of the red, white, or stemless glasses. The red’s bigger, so we’d recommend that one, but it really doesn’t matter much.
Then you’ll have a basic set of dishwasher-safe, lead-free crystal wine glasses that will see you through most encounters of the wine kind. If you really insist that Pinot Noir and Cabernet Blanc can never share the same 'ware, well, you’re probably not buying your wine glasses from a cheapo daily-deal website anyway.
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