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Not necessarily Freestyla... there are other factors to account for:

The first is that glass, crystal in particular allows for optimum clarity when observing the color of wine. Taste, aroma and color are the three most important aspects when appreciating wine; using plastic cups would reduce our ability to get the most out of our senses. Also, unlike plastic, the brims of glass wine goblets can be manipulated to thinner than 1mm. This allows the wine to flow directly onto your tongue (and your taste buds) instead of immediately spreading out, avoiding your tongue and filling the pockets of your cheeks.

Additionally, the weight of glass helps stemware remain sturdy. If you used plastic stemware, the wine would weigh more than the cup and tumble over more frequently, costing you more money to replace those rugs. Standard glass and plastic costs about the same to manufacture but people are willing to pay more for glass than plastic. The luxury of hand-blown crystal comes with uniqueness, elegance and a sense of pride...just like that Corvette we all want.

As I'm sure you may know, recent news warns drinking water out of plastic bottles because the combination of sunlight, heat and other factors can cause carcinogens to leach out of the plastic and slowly poison you over time. They first discovered this by noticing a slight plastic taste to water. With a highly acidic ingredient like wine, the carcinogenic effect of holding wine in plastic can be even more detrimental to our health. A few companies make wine glasses that contain traces of lead which adds structure and allows the consumer to resort to dishwasher cleaning. Riedel does not do this. My suggestion is to avoid any wine glasses that are dishwasher safe. Would you want that corvette sent into a carwash or would you feel much better having someone handwash it for you?

Deb, don't listen to the negative criticism; in fact, don't even respond to those critics. Some people make it their life effort to downplay the opinions of others.

Now down to business... The vessel that you drink wine out of greatly affects the overall impact of the wine itself. Particularly, the wine can be easily stirred to awaken the vibrant aromas which unleash the flavors held within. The human nose can sense more than 2,000 smells while the mouth can only sense sour, sweet, salty and bitter. The power of smell greatly affects the attractiveness of the thing you drink or eat. Think about it.

I would suggest spending what you can afford on wine glasses. Whether its $10 or $100, if you make an attempt to purchase an actual wine glass set, you will be experiencing more quality wine than someone who drinks it out of a plastic cup.

Never in all my days would I expect THIS post to garner so much attention.

Thanks for all your feedback--positive and negative.

A word about subjectivity. The commentary I provide on this site and elsewhere is all subjective. I don't believe much in a "science" of taste. Instead, I believe all taste (pizza, wine, hamburgers) is subjective and depends on environmental (and other) factors, and that people should make their own decisions about what they put in their mouths based on likes and dislikes and not what anyone else says. So for those of you who are content with your stemware/plastic cups/jars/glasses, I say "Cheers." For those who have wondered if stemware matters, do your own taste test. Maybe it will matter to you, maybe it won't. It matters to me.

I hope that even my critics above--the ones who have lost faith in my wine advice and see this post as somehow antithetical to what I promote in terms of wine value--will appreciate that at least you know what I think on this subject. Now you can discard my opinions in full knowledge of what glass I used to come up with them!

Leilah, you may be interested in the work of Ann C. Noble, formerly a professor of viticulture at UC Davis. According to her research, we all need to be told what we're smelling or tasting before we can identify it. She contends that we lack the proper vocabulary to identify smells and tastes precisely, but that can be addressed through education. That's the basis for her work on the sensory evaluation and appreciation of wine, and it's why the hundreds of students who go through UC Davis and other wine programs throughout the world come out saying "gooseberries" when they smell Sauvignon Blanc.

jnicola, Riedel did not lead me by the nose. I wrote my tasting notes down before he started speaking. If it matters to you, you should know that I almost always can tell different wines apart, can identify varieties blind, and even tell you where the grapes came from in some cases (though I am bad on blind tasting Italian wines and identifying vintages). I would like to think this makes me a better wine writer, and it's not that unusual. You should see a Master Sommelier or winemaker at work. They're amazing. Nobody is perfect, however, and tasting blind is always a humbling experience that throws the limits of your palate and your wine education into sharp relief.

I've been to a Riedel seminar. I thought then and think now that it was nonsense. Beautifully put together nonsense, making good use of the placebo effect, of the human tendency to agree with seeming experts, and of group dynamics, but nonsense nonetheless.

That said - if you're ignorant, or if you have a tendency to allow your views to be swayed by others, then you probably really will experience the wine as being better when drunk from the Riedel glasses. Placebo effects are incredibly powerful - it's been shown that you can alleviate the perception of pain when removing wisdom teeth by injecting saline; that aspirin works better if it's expensive and heavily branded than if it's cheap and generic, and that telling cleaners that their cleaning activity is good exercise actually causes them to start losing weight. Unfortunately, if you have confidence in your own palate and are disinclined to be swayed by others, the wine will taste pretty much the same to you whether you're drinking it from plastic cups, cheap Walmart glasses, the 'wrong' Riedel glasses or the right Riedel glasses. Any differences caused by the differing amount of exposure to the air, the concentration of the fumes or so on will be fairly minimal even in the most extreme comparisons (say between the plastic cups and the right Riedel glasses) and will be pretty much non-existent in any less extreme comparison.

I drink my wine (a 2005 Meursault this evening; Javillier's Les Tillets) from proper stemware because it simply feels nicer. It introduces a certain ceremony and formality, which I like. (The stemware I use is from Schott Zweisel, who are slightly cheaper than Riedel and actually have a better product - they make titanium crystal, which has actually been properly tested by recognised, independent bodies, and shown to be tougher than lead crystal which means it breaks less and can be safely put through the dishwasher. They have the guts to submit their claims to proper scrutiny, unlike Riedel.) I get aesthetic satisfaction from the appearance of the glass; its feel and the way the wine looks in it. But I don't delude myself that it makes a significant difference to the taste.

I'm peeved by this post because it's caused me to lose respect for Deb's opinions on wine. I suppose most of her judgments aren't affected by these influences, but I didn't want to think that she could be this easily fooled. If she tested her palate in the conditions applied in the studies described in that Gourmet article I'd be absolutely astonished if she could reliably discern a difference between the way the same wine tastes in different glasses. Though if she could that would be a tribute to her powers of taste, and it would rightly get her considerable attention and kudos...

This post reminds me of this.

Here's the link to that article, StBernard -

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/shattered_myths

Very good article, too. I mean, seriously - they're using the tongue map as a guide to where to impact the wine's flavor? There's no such thing. I'm all for good wine glasses, and the shape will definitely impact the aromas and how you perceive the wine. I notice the way the tastings were set up really led people through it - she would set the expectations and people would taste what they were told they would.

It's like scented geraniums. Sure, that's a "pineapple" scented geranium... but if you didn't know that beforehand, you wouldn't place that scent as being pineapple.

"But why not charge more for the food? Why not charge a cover?"

ok that is hilarious and as a result makes the rest of your post seem ridiculous.

Kilbeggan, I am with you point by point!

Deb, I'd say your feelings of being "ripped off" stems from an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. The markup you talk about pays the restaurant's rent, giving you a place to eat and providing storage for the wine; it covers labor- both the people who serve you the wine and the people who select the wines that go on the list; it pays for the frequently-broken glassware you drink out of; the chairs you sit in and the tables you sit at; essentially, all of the things you leave your house for are possible because of the fact that it costs more to eat and drink in a restaurant than it does at home.

There's nothing wrong with bringing a special bottle of wine to a special occasion in a restaurant. But regularly bringing what you call "ordinary wine" because you're cheap and you're too ignorant to realize that restaurants aren't just the same as your house with the exception of it being less work for you? Maybe you should start bringing your own appetizers as well. Maybe you should start bringing your own appetizers, too. I don't know, those calamari seem overpriced to me. You know, I think I'm going to start taking my own oil to the garage where I get my car serviced.

For those of you who want to bring your own wine, here are some pointers:

- This should be reserved for special wines on special occasions. Make sure the restaurant doesn't have the wine you want to drink on their list. Bringing a bottle that they already have is considered extremely rude by people with manners. And classless by people with class.

- Be generous with servers who are generous with you. By which I mean, you aren't expected to tip on what the restaurant would have charged for the bottle, but if the waiter gives you good service, consider the fact that you would've spent more money had you ordered off the list and throw a little extra in. Also, servers are, frequently, people who are interested in wine. If you aren't, say, trying to split a 750 ml bottle seven ways, they may very well be interested in a little taste of what you brought, and even in hearing what you like about it. That said, if the server grumbles when you show him your bottle of wine, he doesn't really want your tip all that badly, anyway.

- If you're planning on regularly bringing your own wine, and if your logic is that, from the restaurant's point of view at least you're coming in to eat, you should be spending enough money- or at least coming in when it's slow enough- to make it worth it the cost of the table.