Gift: Wine Drinkers Delight
Price: $120 + $75 + $119 + $13
This is a bit of a smorgasbord of great things that center around the pure pleasure of drinking. Each one is a FIND.
1. A case of wine from Jeff Hock at Winesby.com on Jones Street. He has a great small selection of wines that are meant to be drunk, not saved and he delivers within two hours of your call.
2. 8 Riedel O Wine Glasses (stemless). These glasses may not fit in the kitchen cabinet as easily as stemmed ones, but we find them entrancing and unique. Reidel, of course, is a top notch glassmaker. These are high quality drinking vessels.
3. The Reidel O Wine Decanter. It just looks super cool and isn't as big and bulky as the more snooty styles.
4. A Vacu Vin Wine Saver. This is one of our Best Products from 2005 and an absolute necessity when you don't finish the bottle, but want it to taste the same tomorrow.
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
Party Recipe: Creamy Crawfish Dip
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
The stemless glasses are great! Love drinking wine in the summer on the porch and these are much less breakable due to wind etc.
Anybody know where to find a good wine key? my boyfriend is a bartender and a nice wine key would be a great gift. All I've seen are cheapo ones.
Stemless wine glasses are great for everyday use/casual dinner parties. But if I'm opening a 1990 Barolo or a 97 Brunello, glasses with stems are the way to go. These types of wine taste better in stemware.
The Vacu Wine Saver is an absolute MUST HAVE for wine drinkers. There is nothing better than opening a bottle on Monday and being able to have a glass up until Thursday (seriously) that tastes the same.
Interesting that you say that, Luigi. I've always found that the better a wine is, the few accoutrements it needs to improve the taste.
Er, "fewer," not "few."
leslie,I agree but I poured the same wine in both types of glasses and found the one in stemware was more elegant and had a longer finish compared to the stemless. Maybe it is my imagination?
how are mario and the princess?
Whether it was your imagination or not, on a site dedicated to the appreciation of good design, I don't think anyone is going to argue against a good balance of form and function. Which is not to say that the stemless tumblers aren't attractive, but I certainly agree that stemware is generally more elegant.
I also love the design of the stemless glasses. However, they are not really suitable for fine wine because the temperature cannot be stabilized. If you're planning on slugging the glass, fine. But if you intend to savor each sip, then remember it's going to heat up from your hands. As it is, most red wines are served much too warm these days.
Yes I agree, the flipside is most white wines are served too cold
I love the Riedel but beware of them. If you live with a dancer, the Riedel seem to brake quickly! Even the dishwasher eats them up for snacks.
Rachael, try Sherry-Lehmann for the wine key
http://www.sherry-lehmann.com/wines.asp
luigi,
since when do you drink white wine?!
oh i forgot, you'll always make time for a nice chassagne montrachet
libby makes a nice set of (4) of these stemless wine glasses for $9.95, sold at bed, bath & beyond. i just picked up a box the other day and they are great!
But many reds aren't cold enough--it's cellar temperature, not Santa Monica kitchen during the Santa Anas. The classic French little bistro glass is good enough for Deux Bucque Chuque.
And while the greater the vintage, the less it needs help--well, we all saw Sideways, right?
If you go to France or Italy, most wine is served in stemless glasses, it seems. Perhaps incredible vintages are served in stemmed glassware, but for everyday, stemless seems more prevalent. I can't think that it would ruin the wine that much if they are doing it.
Plus, the whole Riedel thing (which I'm not sure whether I buy or not) is that it's the shape of the glass bowl that really matters. People do swear that it somehow makes wine taste better, but then, marketing makes people believe that Gray Goose is the best vodka, when it's never chosen in any blind taste tests I've ever read about.
Wine-related: Zyliss makes a wine bottle stopper with a seal strong enough to allow storing the bottle on its side.
Two friends of mine have these, and neither remembers where to get them. I've looked several places and can't find them.
I also can't find it on the Zyliss website, either US or International English site.
Any idea what the actual name of this item is, and where I can find it? The one I'm thinking of has a latch that flips down and clamps over the the lip at the top of the bottle. I'm guessing it would sell for 5-8 bucks.
On stemless glassware: The only things that technically effect the sensory pleasures of wine are the quality of the glass: leaded crystal being better, the shape of the bowl: tapered at the top to capture the smells and, last but certainly not least, heat: warming wine tends to increase the presence of alcohol and overwhelm the subtleties.
This being said swimwearmodel is correct in her hesitance about the "O" series.
A few years ago I used 100 regular glasses and 100 "O" series glasses at a winery party for restaurant industry folk as a test run. Those in attendance unanimously agreed to disliking the "O" series. Not only did the wine get too warm, which was awful with Napa Cabernet in the height of summer but the fingerprints were disgusting. Never ever use these for a party that includes passed hor d'ouerves ~ big mistake.
As for the wine key question - pull tab brand wine keys are great, inexpensive wine openers that seem to be loved by Bartenders, Sommeliers and Waiters alike. The Holy Grail for wine geeks is the Laguiole wine opener; it’s the one with the ladybug on the back.
Maison 140 in Chelsea carries Laguiole Cheese knives in a myriad of color...great prices too. 212.255.0022/www.maison140nyc.com