Tasting wine the Riedel way

I stopped by the American Restaurant last night to hear George Riedel talk about his famous glassware. Don’t worry — I’m not going bourgeois on you. But I was interested to see if Riedel glass really does make a difference with wine.

The conclusion: yes, but at a price. My price was having to listen to the Austrian Riedel dress down many of the 70 or so wine aficionados in the room. I had flashbacks to Catholic School and teachers yelling at me to sit up straight. Half the time, Riedel seemed to be joking around, but the other half he just seemed like a jerk, especially when calling out two waiters who had been whispering to each other.

Still, Riedel is a born showman. He put plastic glasses next to his hand-blown glasses and asked people to taste from both and see if they noticed a difference, which, of course, they did. “What I am doing is opening your eyes,” he said, obviously excited to see people’s reactions.

To his credit, every wine I tasted out of a Riedel glass came across differently and felt more three-dimensional than wine sipped from a normal glass. But because Riedel was coaching us the entire time on what to look for, I can’t rule out the placebo effect.