I’ve got a handful of Riedel Vinum Syrah and Bordeaux glasses that are my every day wine glasses. I purchased them probably 25 or so years ago. Over time they’ve seen mostly red wine and developed this light staining (in a pattern much like the shadow the moon throws on earth during total eclipse) that just would not come out despite my trying many of the suggestions above. I’ve always hand-washed them, though. In any event, my kid donated some Dawn prewash spray to the house that mostly just sat around for the better part of the past year . . . until I decided to give it a try on my Riedels. It worked! Removed the vast majority of the stains, hand-washing! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
My son swears I need to start using bong cleaner on my glassware and decanters. He’d know, so I’m going to give it a try 
1 Like
I’ve had terrible luck with Zalto stemware in terms of stains. Twice I left a little red wine residue sitting in the glass overnight without rinsing, only to be greeted the next morning by a permanent red stain that was completely unremovable.
I’ve worked in an organic chemistry lab; I have LOTS of experience cleaning glassware, and the stains left in the bottom of my Zaltos were absolutely impossible to remove. Vinegar, baking soda, oxi-clean, peroxide, bleach, steel wool, steam, soaking for 5 days, salt with ice, boiling water, distilled water, countless brands of dish detergent, nothing removed these stains. I had the same problem with the Universals and the Burgundy stems. Never had the same problem with any other bran of glassware.
I found the Zaltos super difficult to clean, and honestly, was a little relieved when I accidentally broke my two Burgundy stems and could replace them with Riedel Sommelier Grand Cru stems.
All other glasses I have found clean up really nicely when rinsed with lots of warm water (no detergent), then steamed over a kettle, and dried with a microfiber cloth.
Rubbing alcohol and coarse sea salt. Shake. Duh!
I haven’t read the whole thread, so apologies if I repeating others, but I find dishwashers to clean glasses amazingly well. I tried thus with a badly stained glass/decanter, though AFAIK.
Also, be careful about breaking glasses when hand washing. It’s very easy to do! A stained glass is better than a broken one.
Bosch has a 4 glass holder that we use; works very well
Coarse sale and a lemon cut in half works well because you can put a fork in the lemon and twist/push down to get some elbow grease in the stain in the bottom.
First, don’t wash the glasses the night of drinking, leads to too much breakage. Second, don’t rinse the glasses until you are going to wash them, this way you don’t get water stains. For decanters I will rinse in very hot water the same night and then dry the outside and put the decanter in a decanter drying rack which seems to do the trick (the very hot water is key).
I’ve had good luck with really hot water (140 degrees F) and some bleach (which is very basic). Then I rinse the heck out of the glass and stand the glass upside down on a cookie rack to drain for about 15 minutes. Then dry with a microfiber cloth (I’ve been using the Riedel ones). Been hand washing my glasses for the past 20 years and I haven’t had water staining problems doing things this way.
Reporting back:
It works! However, for my decanter I did still have to use a bottle brush to scrub the very center bottom (it’s a pointy end decanter, not a flat bottom), but that stubborn ring that never came off before (even with the same bottle brush treatment) is now gone!
I have been using PBW for 15 years. Order it from a brewers supply store. It is what most breweries use to clean thanks and equipment. Makes heavily scaled glasses like new again. Dissolve in warm water and pour into each glass. Let stand for an hour then rinse.
Clorox ! Rinse well !
Never a problem.
FWIW, I find you can leave the top utensil rack in (at least with Grassl stems) but you have to move the both the upper rack and the utensil rack into the dishwasher at the same time. Moving one without the other can break the stem.
I took the third rack out because the plates were being hit by the upper spray arm, plus we don’t need to use it. I always take glasses out before raising or lowering the rack.