I bought from Chris as well. Very responsive! Looking forward to the glasses!
So forgetting about how they perform…because one glass will perform better with some wines and some in another…if anyone says the GG outperforms the Zalto overwhelmingly, I’ll take that with a grain of salt…
But what I AM interested is:
How does it feel compared to the Zalto?
The GG Gold is lighter…so does it feel as light? How about strength wise…the Zaltos are deceptively strong…what are people’s experience w/ the GG Golds? Similiar?
Already at 115g the Zaltos are pretty light…giving up 20% in mass seems pretty significant…
Kevin,
Both stems, IMVHO, have performed under normal wear in my house rather well. I use the dishwasher to clean both and have never had one break. I do the rare hand wash with a bottle brush as well. No deaths with that method either but I think it’s by far the most dangerous. Hands, soap, faucets, sink edges are all in the way with a hand wash.
I’ve dropped both a few inches onto hard surfaces and no disasters have occurred. I have found my Reidel stems to be more fragile between bowl and stem and when comparing mass side by side it may be because they are SO much heavier and that may create stress points the other two stems don’t have.
Gotta stick my nose in and say anyone who thinks the subtly different shapes of these glasses makes any real difference in how a wine smells or tastes is just kidding themselves. Without doing a real, controlled, blind test (that includes allowing the smell and taste receptors to recover between tastes, and being able to judge the differences from memory over that time), everything is just anecdotal, with a lot of psychology involved. Both are very nice looking glasses, would be happy to drink from either. But declaring one is somehow “better” than the other for any wine, let alone particular types of wine, is folly. As I always say, drink from the glass that gives you the most pleasure.
Analysis: True.
Geez Alan let us have some fun!
Isn’t all of this – mailing lists, wine boards, you name it – just folly? 
So keep in mind were talking about the “universal” glasses right, so by definition I feel like the goal of using these glasses is that they will perform pretty well no matter what type of wine you’re drinking.
That being said, after drinking quite a few different varietals head to head from both the Zalto universal and the GG…I’ve found the GG to “perform” better (i.e. I enjoy the wine more) the majority of the time.
Ymmv.
As for the feel/strength of the glasses, the GG is definitely light…but as someone else referenced, it’s “deceptively strong”
- a lot
Kids across the street are playing on my lawn again, but as long as they don’t hurt anything I don’t bother them. So I gotta yell at someone 
Great post Alan.
As I always say, drink from the glass that gives you the most pleasure.
Analysis: Also true.
And Molitor’s wine tastes just fine from any glass.
Alan Rath: Right on brother!
I’m sorry man, I have to completely disagree with you here in regards to the shape of the glass vs. How a wine smells thing. I’m definitely no scientist, and I’ve absolutely never performed any “controlled blind tests” (this is wine for Christ’s sake…why would I take the pleasure out of it and make it a science experiment)…but I know for a freaking fact that wine…to me…smells different, and thus comes across different to me on the palate depending on the wine glass I’m using. I’ve tried it many, many times, and whole heartedly feel this to be true, which is why I reach for my GC’S almost every time.
And in terms of the psychology thing, I really don’t think that plays into my conclusions in this case. I actually wanted to like the Zalto more (it’s a sexy glass)…but couldn’t deny the fact that the GG was more enjoyable most of the time.
But I do agree with you that you should drink from the glass that gives you the most pleasure. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters with this crazy hobby.
Ok…I’ll get off of your grass now
We had a thread about this - I compared two different shaped glasses and a few members noted the shape might be the biggest difference. The way each bowl chimneyed the aromas greatly affected the nose, which affected the palate.
I haven’t found that a glass is better for a type of wine…but I have found that a wine smelled better (to me) in Glass A than in B…and for the next wine the nose was better in Glass B than A…So no psychology or bias…
But there is no doubt that wines smell different in different glasses…not better…not worse…they smell different…
That’s why I take people saying GG’s are smelling better than Zaltos overwhelmingly with a grain of salt…I can believe they do with some wines…and Zaltos are better with some wines…and Riedels are better with some wines…and SZ’s better with some wines…(Nose, not palate)…
I have found that certain bowl shapes fit certain styles slightly better…eg…bigger reds smell much better in bowls that allow a bit more air into them…that mix comes off better…in other glasses it concentrates the alcohol too much…but someone else would disagree…
At the end of the day, I love Zaltos for how they feel…that part is always consistent…
Great, I hate threads like this. Now I am going to order some GG glasses…to add to the collection of Zaltos, Reidels, Speiglaus, various cheap trade giveaway stems, champagne flutes I never want to use, etc.
I tell my (grown) children that I no longer collect wine, just collect various glasses to see if I can get a glass to make Calif PN taste like grand cru Burgundy. ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
And feelings always trump science experiments!
Well, Alan, controlled blind tests are virtually impossible here, but to say we can’t perceive real differences through anecdotal evaluation really doesn’t make sense. If I said the sky looks different at night than it does during the day, would you say I can’t know that without doing controlled, blind tests? As complex as wine aromas are, with so many different compounds influencing our perception, I think it’s ridiculous to say even subtle shape differences don’t have any “real” effect on aroma. I mean, is the difference in shape between Riedel Vinum Bordeaux and Riedel Vinum Burgundy subtle? Doesn’t a wine smell dramatically different in each glass? I can’t imagine you’d deny that. If those are too different, where does one draw the line? I actually understand why you doubt something like travel shock, but stating your completely unfounded opinion on this as fact is just as unscientific as some of us saying we do notice differences. Do wines honestly smell identical to you out of different glass types? If so, I’m shocked that you are able to have such a deep level of enjoyment of wine, because I can’t imagine you’re sensing all that much aromatically. Perhaps your own bias influences your experiences more than my bias influences my experience in this case. I actually went into this expecting far more similarity between the two glasses than I’m finding. Sure, there’s lots of psychology involved, but saying different glass shapes don’t provide different aromatic experiences makes no sense at all.
No.
you keep writing this, but is there science to back up the assertion that the glass cannot make any difference?
it’s illogical. just thinking of the various capacities and shapes of various glasses and their effect on aromas - or rather our ability to perceive those aromas. that, in and of itself, would prove that there are differences. and if there are differences, there are preferences.
putting aside qualitative judgments, given the great variety of shapes, sizes, and materials, how can it be possible that NONE of these have any influence on the tasting experience (outside of just psychological)?
fwiw, i do this every time i open champagne at home as i find that as between the zalto champagne, universal, and white wine glasses, there’s a big difference - to me. I haven’t logged which champagnes i’ve preferred out of which glass and whether there are patterns. but the mere exercise of lining up 3 of these glasses with the same champagne results in different experiences, most notably on the bubbles for sure, but also on aroma as some champagnes seem to show better from a more open glass like the universal, etc.
clearly, this isn’t scientific in the rigorous context of controls, repeatable results, etc. - but there’s no denying that differences exist, even if they are merely preferences.
OK, back in my math days one way to think about a conjecture was by looking at the edge cases. So, let’s think of our edge cases as 1)drinking out of a highball glass and 2)filling a bathtub with wine and lapping it up like a cat. Clearly the aromatic experience will be difference, so there must certainly be some gradation in between. Perhaps it is small, but it’s probably not zero.