ThePortForum.com

Today, Mrs Read proved she does listen and presented me with a pair of Riedel port glasses. The literature says they are perfectly safe in the dishwasher.

What do others with experience using these glasses say?

if it's the vinum/restaurant series

i throw em in the top shelf of the dish washer

if it's the sommelier's line.

they are so damn thin that I'm very scared of doing anything but hand washing them.

g-man wrote:if it's the vinum/restaurant series

i throw em in the top shelf of the dish washer

Thank you. It is the vinum.

Mine have been in the dishwasher many times with no ill effects.

But please note that we do not need to use salt or any other rinse aide where we live. If you use such things in the chalky south and other glasses suffer from bloom or scratching your Vinums will share that pain

Hand washing Riedels carries its own hazards..

Earlier this year I was hand drying the interior of one with reasonable care, when the stem suddenly broke in two places and the broken end plunged into my hand.

I was not a happy bunny, and my enthusiasm for this brand fell like a whore's drawers...

What g-man said. I normally hand wash anyway nightly, but periodically run my Vinums through the dishwasher for a more thorough cleaning. I wouldn't dare do that with my Sommeliers, though, as they're just too thin to trust to mechanized cleaning.

Hand washing either is fine with care, Tom's PEBKAC notwithstanding. I have also broken a Vinum while hand washing, but managed to avoid any collateral damage.

yea the stems on most of the riedels are way too fragile.

I personally use the schott zwiesels (even tho they're the same parent company) for my port drinking as i haven't had the same broken stem issue

Wasn't the stem on mine - I was drying the interior if the bowl with a towel and two fingers and managed to pop it from the inside. The towel conveniently caught all of the pieces.

I now use one finger and have had no further issues.

g-man wrote:
I personally use the schott zwiesels (even tho they're the same parent company)

Do you mean Spiegelau? I don't think S-Z are owned by the Riedel family...

Riedel themselves recommend machine wash (specifically Miele...), but when I spoke to their customer services their feeling is that machines generally (not just Miele) place less stress on the glasses during the washing process than hand wash (assuming you have a rack that fits them neatly).

I play it safe and never put any stemware in the dishwasher. The one in a million that breaks is such a pain, I'd just rather wash them all by hand and not worry.

RAYC wrote:

g-man wrote:
I personally use the schott zwiesels (even tho they're the same parent company)

Do you mean Spiegelau? I don't think S-Z are owned by the Riedel family...

mmm must have been a drunken reading on my part!

i was somehow under teh impression most of the major wine glass co's are under the riedel family.

I find that dishwashers seem to cloud glasses eventually. I am therefore opposed to them for any glassware I actually care about.
Like Tom I am bored of paying good money for a glass (Riedel) which I only have to cough loudly near to break. In fairness their port glasses, being smaller, are a little more robust.

My dishwasher is in the garage, quite a long way from any plumbing or power (but quite possibly the right way up, at least), so I don't tend to worry about putting my S-Z glasses into it.

RAYC wrote:Riedel themselves recommend machine wash (specifically Miele...), but when I spoke to their customer services their feeling is that machines generally (not just Miele) place less stress on the glasses during the washing process than hand wash (assuming you have a rack that fits them neatly).

I shelled out the big bucks for a Miele dishwasher and love it. Highly recommend it. While I dishwasher most of the daily glasses my upper end riedel and SZ glasses get hand washed.