Random Food Questions Thread - Page 395

I went to some wine bar where they used Lobmeyr crystal. I didn't realize that shit is so expensive. Are there any other esoterically expensive crystal brands like this?

pretty much the default for over-the-top expensive wine geek crystal is reidel somms. they also have the advantage of being appropriately shaped. guys do tend to overstate the difference, but having had numerous tastings of the same wine from various glasses, there's not much question these make a difference. they also break if you look at them sternly. unless you're just spending money to spend money, you're better off with simple, clean schott-zweissel or spiegelau (that's what i have and they're great).

Yeah, have become a big fan of the Schott-Zweissel titanium based crystal. I'm using the Forte collection. We have the Burgundy, Chard, and use the Bordeaux as our "universal" glass.

zalto

Oh, I know about all of those, I'd equate Riedel and Schottt Zweisel, et al to be like Mercedes and BMW, and Baccarat up a few notches - but this Lobmeyr stuff is like 4X the price of Riedel, and at least twice as much as Baccarat...

In Tokyo the restaurants and bars keep incredibly high standards for their service wares, and they seemingly keep incredibly expensive inventory of them as well. Everything is Riedel, Bernadaud, Christofle, Porthault, Baccarat, etc, etc. I guess the culture here is that you have to expect to pay to play in the restaurant business. I ate yakitori last night and it didn't occur to me at first that they even had a wine list, which I had to ask for later; they produced Riedel glasses for our wine.

I tend to buy the cheapest I can find. I tend to break an average of at least one a month.

And can someone explain the value of the stemless glass? I fail to see the point. Are these for box-wine folks who couldn't give a shit or something?

I'm of the, "It's going to break" philosophy so don't spend too much. The S-Z titanium stuff is very sturdy and I buy them for $7 a stem. The titanium based crystal also means they'll take the dish washer and won't haze over or otherwise get worn. It's really good stuff for the money. I've some Riedel Vinum stuff and I swear it just spontaneously shatters sitting on the shelf.

I'll spend more on old-fashoned glasses and other barware because it seems sturdier. Slowly but surely working on my Tiffany set. Wine glasses get tossed around too much for my comfort level though- I'll have to look into this titanium stuff. As it stands, the wife comes home with the odd 4 pack of whatever-she-finds-at-Costco or Ikea, so I tend not to feel too guilty.

i have some of those Ikeas for when I have guests. They're less than a dollar a piece and come in a 6-pack box that is easy to put away. haha.

No. Just a design. They're a perfectly good glass.

I have one of those six packs left. Hard to beat. I keep the box too.

Stemless glassware is good for when you have a bunch of drunk bitches gesticulating.

We have lobmeyr crystal, and it is just beautiful stuff. For wine we use mid range Reidl, mainly because too many ignerts scoffed at the not so wine friendly lobmeyr we have and I started to get annoyed, but we still use it for Champagne and have bitchin water glasses from them engraved (or etched?) with insects.

The lobmeyr stuff makes every other glassware look cheap and dreary. There is a much bigger difference between it and the sommeliers than there is between the sommeliers and Crate and Barrel. And it is super durable. I've literally bounced them off the floor before.

having them hit the floor is pretty crazy to imagine but having handled the Lobmeyrs, I can see they're definitely a bit more sturdy than a Riedel. Schott Zweisel is great because it's also pretty sturdy, and like Pio said, very cheap. I checked US prices on Lobmeyr and they're half of what they want in Japan, here it's like $230+ a stem. I suppose that's the case for most stuff here, though I went to the Christofle store to buy a gift yesterday and their prices were very fair, considering import taxes and exchange rates.