How old are your Riedels/Do they show signs of wear?

I have four Riedel shapes, all Vinum series, the oldest of which are ten years old.

Other than some hazing which I assume is from the hard water, they don’t really show much in the way of wear and tear although they get used almost daily.

There is an occasional scratch, but they do look pretty good.

MIne are going on 5 years old and still look like new. Only broke a few over the years.

I’ve noticed a little staining to my Vinums (which are at least 5 years old). Barely noticeable, but there is a slight wine-colored tint to them compared to my newer glasses. Not complaining, really, given how much use they’ve gotten and how few have broken, just making an observation.

As a habit, I always left the glass(es) on the counter to be washed in the morning. Only a few years ago I realized the wine left in the glass overnight was staining the crystal.

Now I rinse them and leave a little clean water standing in the glass overnight, but those stained glasses never came clean.

Mark, make a weak solution of Cascade and water and let 'em soak. Works like a charm on stems and decanters.

I think my Spiegelaus are about 10 years old and only a couple of stems are starting to show the effects of the hard water in the area. Every so often I’ll take them and wash them in a week solution of Oxyclean to brighten them back up. My Riedels are about 5 years old and look like new but it’s only a matter of time.

Mine are several years old ,and look great(as long as I don’t break em at tastings which is another thing of course).

I always wash by hand ,and dry by hand,so no hard watter deposits for me.

If I don’t get to it after dinner,I just rinse it ,and leave a little water in the glass.

Cheers,
G.

I have some Vinum Bordeaux glasses that must be 15-20 years old. I also have some Syrah glasses I bought on close-out about 10 years ago. Those that weren’t broken are in excellent shape.

My Riedel vinums are 10 years old. Still look brand new. I wash them in the dishwasher, and I do leave them with wine residue overnight on a consistent basis. Hard water calcification is harder to remove than red wine color stains.

Dishwasher routine. Load the bottom rack with glasses, fill the first cup with Electrasol powder, leave 2nd cup empty. Run a full cycle which gives the glasses 8 rinses. Open dishwasher the second it finishes (steaming will cause your leaded glasses to turn blueish) and air dry.

I’ve only broken glasses when I hand wash. I’ve only noticed any soapy residue when I hand wash, no matter how many times I rinse them, the dishwasher does a better job.

Hard water? I’ve not measured it but assume it is pretty hard being in NM/ABQ.

Oh my sommelier glasses are 5 years old, I treat them the same way and they still look like new as well.

Mine were showing some signs of wear since I refused to put them in the dishwasher. My wife finally convinced me to try putting them in and they came out looking beautiful. Going on 4 years with them and very happy.

Have a bunch of Vinum and Sommelier glasses which I always treated to hand washing the next day (dot clean glass after drinking wine is a rule in my house).
They started showing some age (oldest ones I have are going on 20 plus). Put them in my dishwasher for the first time (1 vinum snuck its way in during thanksgiving somehow which gave me the courage to try the rest a few weeks later)
They all survived and came out looking great, very impressed how well the ones that haven’t broken have held up (lost about 30% to breakage over the years).
That being said my Gabriel gold get most of the action the past few years. And they look awesome always.

After putting on a Riedel stemware tasting in the mid 90s, i bought many 6 packs of the Vinum Burgundy and Bordeaux stems plus a few of the Sommelier Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux ones. My MO is to hand wash all glasses in hot water and dry individually. Other than a small amount of breakage, mostly due to transport, and a very small amount of scratching, all in good shape with no discoloring. I still have 12 Overture red stems bought in 1992 that I use 6 of for our blind monthly tasting group, all in good order. I’m thinking the less desirable leaded crystal glasses hold up better than the non-leaded ones {Sommelier line}, but I do not use them nearly as often.

Our stems last about as long as a Tootsie Roll Pop in the Wise Owl’s grasp…they never get too old.

I am in charge of stemware washing, but tend to run a few days behind. Therefore, my wife will sometimes get frustrated and wash them like they are that leg lamp in Christmas Story.

So, I am in no good position to post about their aesthetic longevity!

Last night, we drank Chards from…a Reidel chard stem, a Reidel pinot stem, a Reidel cab stem, and an off brand universal stem.

Reidel wineglasses have been our “go to” for many years. I’m a QPR kind of guy in wine (and most other things) and I think these glasses have a good QPR. We (not really “we” of course) hand wash, rinse, and hang upside down in a rack to dry. We never had any noticeable “wear” or noticeable “aging”. We have broken many glasses due to accidents that one could not reasonably expect a quality wine glass to survive. When we get to the point where we do not have enough wine glasses left, we go buy more Reidels. Hope this helps.

My surviving Riedel Vinums of all shapes and sizes are from 1999-2000 — probably about 30-35 glasses in total are all in good shape. Always hand washed. Both the ones I use often and the ones I never use still look good.

Like others I now use GGG more often. But only since BD 2018.

My oldest “may” date back to 1995 or so. Hard to tell as over the years they get broken. I have had no signs of aging, other than I’ve noted over time they tend to become more fragile (embrittlement.) I hand wash everything and have noticed some known older glasses to break with very little force applied. Has anyone else reached this same conclusion?

Regards,
Andy Kei!!or

That’s a feature, not a flaw. It’s what makes them Riedel.

And way to jumpstart a nine-year old thread!

Andy, I have not had any breakage from washing with Vinum stems 25 years old due to age and stated above, hand wash all in hot water {and use a kitchen cloth to remove smudges around the rims}.

I have some that go back to the early 90s, which seem to have been somewhat etched inside the bowls from my leaving wine or water in them overnight. When they dry, you can see what the overnight fill level was.

Efferdent also works.