favorite red wine glasses?

I'd like to buy a present for someone of some really nice red wine glasses.
Can anyone make a recommendation?

Thanks in advance!

Crate and Barrel has some nice ones.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/dining-and-entertaining/wine-glasses/1

One can never go wrong with Riedel. And for something a little on the funkier side, the stemless "O" series is pretty neat.

http://www.riedel.com/collections/glass-collections/l/o-riedel/

lanky said:
One can never go wrong with Riedel. And for something a little on the funkier side, the stemless "O" series is pretty neat.
http://www.riedel.com/collections/glass-collections/l/o-riedel/

I LOVE Riedel. So elegant, and so simple.

whats your budget?

When HankZona talks, people listen.

irl said:
When HankZona talks, people listen.

thanks for my first good laugh of the day, irl! I ask what the budget is because you can spend a fortune or not. Depends on the end user of the glassware and how many glasses they want to buy.

Also, Crate and Barrel has some good quality but they also have those hideous (to me), impractical (to me) glasses that "Olivia Pope" uses on Scandal. If the recipients however are Scandal fans, that may be the way to go.

“Riedel me this,” Georg said. “What’s the difference between drinking from my specially designed Sangiovese glass, and drinking your Chianti Classico from an ordinary wine glass?”
Silence.
“When you drink from my Sangiovese glass, your lipstick leaves a mark — on my ass!”
So begins my interview with the patron saint of wine glasses. Building on the bogus science of a tongue map, which any real man would never consult were his tongue lost, Georg has built his business into a global wine phenomenon. “Hell, I thought,” Georg explains, “people think the shape of the goddam wine bottle is significant, why not the shape of the glass? I know I can convince wealthy wine drinkers that it matters, that’s easy. And from there, the unwashed public will follow.” And a billion dollar business was born.
Way back in the 1960s, it was believed that the human tongue was divided into four regions, like Eastern Europe after World War II. The tongue map showed the separate parts of the tongue that tasted salty, sweet, bitter and sour. The tongue map was accepted science back in the day. It was completely disproven fifty years ago, but that’s unimportant. What’s important is people believed in it; they’d studied it as children in school. They also believed you could get polio swimming in a pool with poor people, and that JFK was killed by a lone gunman. Georg was the visionary who found a way to capitalize on their ignorance, and the fact that people still think the tongue map is science — which is what great marketing is all about.
“You see,” Georg continues, “the wine business is a very sexist business. As it should be. As it needs to be. For the most part, only men are foolish enough to spend a lot of money on extravagant bottles of wine, ornate shrines to themselves they call wine cellars, and wildly expensive and unnecessary accoutrements, like specialized wine glasses. Women are not so wrapped up in that kind of scheisse. Which is why they will never run the wine business, and why we pretend they are simply not as good at it. It is small-minded and immature men who understand that the only way to impress other men is to buy expensive wines and pour them into ridiculous decanters and serve them in very particular wine glasses. Things we convince them of using pseudo-science and half-truths. I am simply the man who found that way to tap into their vanity and overblown egos. So, you see, I love our sexist business.”
Georg has designed wine glasses that are, he says, perfect for specific varieties or styles of wine. “We brought in winemakers as consultants, to make it appear more legitimate. People believe winemakers. I don’t know why. They believe that winemakers always tell the truth. They once believed that about priests. We know how that worked out.”
In the beginning, Georg preached that his wine glasses, designed specifically for Bordeaux, or Burgundy, were designed to funnel the wine to the proper areas of the tongue to maximize the pleasure of drinking your First Growth or Grand Cru. It was misdirection. Magical thinking. But in a controlled situation, with Georg holding court, he could convince anyone that his wine glass was superior to any other for a particular wine variety. Much as an illusionist can convince you he can restore a bank note with your signature on it after he’s torn it into pieces. It’s sleight of hand, of course. Georg is the master of sleight of tongue. And it’s the reason his company is the legerdemain source for handblown, and overblown, glassware.
“Once I was able to re-establish the basics, and they had long been established, I mean, who didn’t already have different Bordeaux and Burgundy glasses?, then I was able to exaggerate. It’s a comic effect, really. How far can we take this mania for worrying about which glass to drink our wine from? Like a great comedian, I understood that there was no limit. I simply had to deliver them with a straight face. ‘Yes, your Bordeaux stem is just fine for your thirty-year-old Hermitage. Nothing at all wrong with using it. Except you are denying yourself the full pleasure and revelation of your fine old Syrah by not using my Syrah glass. This is your choice, of course, I cannot dictate taste.’ But I sure as hell can manipulate it.”
There’s less emphasis on tongue maps these days, but the science of smell is a wonderful substitute. “When it comes to smell, you can convince people of anything. Does my Zinfandel smell just slightly better from Georg’s Zinfandel glass than my everyday red wine glass? If he says so. If I told them it smelled better from a glass ashtray, as long as I had some imaginary science to back it up, they’d believe me. People are very insecure when it comes to their sense of smell. Hell, they’re around Donald Trump and don’t smell a rat.”
With as many as 6,000 grape varieties, is there a limit to how many different wine glasses Georg can peddle? “Perhaps. But it doesn’t matter. I love to be in a new restaurant and overhear the sommelier tell a customer, ‘Let me get the proper wine glass for your selection.’ Sommeliers are the stupidest, most gullible, people I deal with, and, thus, my best messengers. I throw them expensive luncheons, taste them on fine wines, and I convince them, because they are essentially very insecure little people, that each wine glass is better than the previous for exploring a wine’s depths. I can see their beady little eyes light up. They spend their lives convincing people that more expensive wines are better. I simply speak their language back at them, only about wine glasses, and it always works.”
More recently, Georg has expanded his empire by adding a line of stemless wine glasses. the “O” glasses. “In our current world, we all feel like we need to make do with less,” Georg tells me, “and what is there to remove from a wine glass but the stem? For years we made fun of people who held their wine glasses by the bowl. Now I have everyone doing that and thinking it’s cool and trendy and making do with less. Idiots!
“I tell you, I’m the funniest guy in the wine business!”

(satire, but, as with all good satire, containing some element of truth)

http://www.timatkin.com/articles?1536

I've found Reidel Glasses at Home Goods for a great price

Bed Bath and Beyond has a huge selection of glasses. Don't forget your coupons!

We have the gamut, from Target's Reidel line, to C&B, to Tiffany (their Optic pattern), to Baccarat. All perfectly good in their own way. As Hank said, what are you planning on spending?

ctrzaska said:
We have the gamut, from Target's Reidel line, to C&B, to Tiffany (their Optic pattern), to Baccarat. All perfectly good in their own way. As Hank said, what are you planning on spending?

I find Target's Riedel glasses of lesser quality... well, actually, a little sturdier. Still nice though.

Riedel's Target line is quite different than what they're known for. The primary difference is the thicker glass, which does make them a little sturdier but is the opposite of what Riedel built their brand on. Thin glass is great for wine but hard for life.

We do have some great wine glass options at Kitchen a la Mode in South Orange in a variety of price points, from more practical chunkier glass to elegantly designed glasses. I don't carry Riedel because I don't think the value is as good as with some other lines

We have started drinking wine (and every other liquid) from (high quality) plastic glasses. Tastes the same and no worry about breaking an expensive glass.

We got our favorite wine glasses at Ikea. They are my favorite because I can wash them in the dishwasher. If one ever breaks, who cares! My crystal ones, meanwhile, sit unused in the pantry.

Wine glass preference is surprisingly subjective. What feels right can depend on the size of your hands, the length of the stem, the weight of the base, and the size of the bowl.

I went looking at Crate and Barrel for some inexpensive glasses for a party and by picking some up, I immediately narrowed down dozens of choices to just two that I found appealing. The nice thing (besides the price, which was around $10) is that they are stock items, so when one breaks it's easy to replace. Which happens fairly often, because I toss them in the dishwasher. I think they're Vineyard or Viv -- nice and thin, even glass, with no palpable bumps or seams on the stems. (I can't stand feeling a ridge between the bowl and the stem for some reason.)

I think the glasses carried by William Sonoma are nicer, but they're much more fragile and I think I'm down to two.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/williams-sonoma-reserve-cabernet-glasses-buy-6-get-8-set/?pkey=cbar-wine-glasses-red%7C%7C

I have some lovely Tiffany crystal wineglasses that I never use because the stem and base make them too heavy. And I've never taken to stemless glasses -- they feel too much like orange juice glasses to me. But as I said, it's personal.

We still love the ones we received for our wedding, Marquis by Waterford "Vintage." They're simple and elegant, and have held up very nicely (well, except when dropped...)

http://www.waterford.com/vintage-full-body-red-classic-white-wine-set-of-12

Somethingz_Fishy said:
Riedel's Target line is quite different than what they're known for. The primary difference is the thicker glass, which does make them a little sturdier but is the opposite of what Riedel built their brand on. Thin glass is great for wine but hard for life.

I know it is, and I've broken a couple dozen over the years, but I still like drinking out of them.

This is fantastic help - thank you!

hankzona said:
whats your budget?

@Hankzona Budget - less than $200. This person is a huge red wine drinker and a bit of a connoisseur. They really helped me out in a jam. I'd like them to remember how much I appreciated their help and what a good friend they are when they drink from the glasses.

$200 will get you a set of two of these... they're functional and beautiful, and will cover the gift part (you can get the same function for a lot cheaper, of course, with Zweisel and Reidel and some othersfor about $12-15 a glass, but there's nothing innately special about them other than that they're very good at what they are).

http://us.baccarat.com/crystal/wine/glasses-2611151.html?cgid=bar-tableware-wineglasses

A great gift glass for whites and roses....

http://www.winemonger.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1741

I love these.

Total Wine in Essex Green (can't believe I'm recommending them for anything) has a decent selection of wine glasses. Also, be cautious about the stemless... not all wine drinkers like them. The hand is not meant to touch the bowl of the glass, because it imparts warmth to the wine and as a result changes the taste. My husband hates them, which makes me sad because I rather like them. But it depends how serious the gift recipients are about such things.

This won't help but my favorite red wine glasses are ones with lots of red wine in them, preferably within reach of my hands and/or face.

Not. Can't get into the extra large glasses. They just look overindulgent when they hold the best part of a quart. I know that large ones are the de rigueur these days, but I think of them as the wine equivalent of a triple cheese Whopper with bacon, guacamole, extra mayo, and cheese fries. To me it's like showing your friends that you are a big drinker. I don't see Jacques Pepin using them, and I don't see him bragging about the wine's "nose" either.

this will cost closer to $300 but if this person is a red wine drinker and if they collect wine and have a good amount with some age to it, this would be an ideal gift. I am not big on wine gadgets, especially openers which I think often are overkill, but this is on my wish list to get soon for myself (hint hint). I met with some of the reps of the company for a demonstration...it works really well. A lot of better restaurants are now offering better/older wines by the glass because of this.

http://www.coravin.com/

Oh man, Hank, I've been thinking really hard about bringing this into the shop for ages. Wish the price point wasn't quite so scary.

Somethingz_Fishy said:
Oh man, Hank, I've been thinking really hard about bringing this into the shop for ages. Wish the price point wasn't quite so scary.

It's the real deal...I haven't purchased one yet because I am hoping to barter with them or see if there is an upgraded device coming out some time in the not too distant future. I can understand your trepidation though. I think even at $50 less I would have already owned one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wine-Sunglasses-Wine-Tasting-Party-Fun-Costume-Red-Wine-Glasses-/381276432768

Perhaps a nice decanter, instead? Riedel again for pricey ones, but there are numerous alternatives.