I broke another damn stem

Useless thread, just wanted to vent a little. I know broken stems are par for the course for my too fragile Reidel Vinums, but I expect a little more durability from SZ. All I was doing was washing it with gentle pressure. The stem was a “top ten full bodies red”. Oh well, $10 into the garbage. This is after I told my wife I would wash all the stems cuz she breaks too many.

I have those SZ Titan ones, one snapped right in half when a poker chip was dropped about 6 inches directly to the middle of the stem and it snapped right in half. Sucked.

Given how preciously I would handle any $10 bill itself, I have broken only two nice wine glasses in my lifetime.

Probably a job waiting for you with US Navy EOD.

My wife broke a couple of the SZ Tritan Burg stems when she was washing them. I thought they were supposed to be infused with titanium or something to make them more durable.

They are not indestructable. I have killed a dozen or so Tritans.

Or washing dishes in a fancy restaurant.

You are right, in a way. During the past couple of years, I have been eating in a pretty fancy work cafeteria.

I flicked a Sommelier Riedel once with my wrist to get a little water out of it and watched helplessly as the bowl detached and sailed into the floor. $50 gone.
alan

Such is the entry ticket for playing in that vaunted DRC arena.

They are more durable than most stemware on the market but anything that thin is delicate by design. Don’t hate the playa…

My answer: (1) nothing over $10 per stems, save for a few rarely-used Riedel glasses and (2) run 'em through the dishwasher. My cruddy 25+ year old GE dishwasher has never broken a stem. Meanwhile, well-meaning friends have finished off three in the last month thinking they were doing me a favor by hand washing my glasses.

Not that I have ever tried this but I thought some stems have an insurance portion built into the cost that lets you be reimbursed if you break one, is this true?

If you have a connection, try to get your hands on the Reidel Restaurant Series glasses. They are a little more durable. I break a restaurant series for every 3 Vinum or other high end stemware. I do have a tendency to snap the lip off the restaurant series trying to remove lipstick. The other odd thing is dropping the restaurant series and watching the stem go into 5 pieces while the bowl remains intact.

They are the best for heavy users.

Hey, at least you didn’t fall on the broken stem and sever nerves in your hand, requiring surgery that won’t really help much.

I got 18 new zwiesel Fortes a couple months ago and thought I was being smart and careful putting them in upside down after 1 use…as to not smudge the bowls…and one slipped half way down and broke at the stem…I then decided a little finger smudge wasn’t a big deal and put them in right side up.

This is most fun when it’s a Burgundy glass. I must have broken $1K worth of stems in my career, either accidentally or on purpose.

Everyone’s story made me feel better, especially Alan’s. Well, not Poppy’s, I hope that didn’t happen to you. Now, I have to go buy another stem cuz I hate mismatched stems on the dinner table.

Joe, we’ve broken a few of the SZ Tritans. They are durable but not indestructible.

Bottom line, celebrate a broken stem. It’s a sign of a life well-lived.

I will leave fine Riedel glasses to rich people. They are poor value for money and glasses WILL break. You break one of those babies and you’ve lost the equivalent of a killer bottle of wine. Doesn’t make sense to me.

Alex R.