The Placebo Effect
Friends and loyal readers know that I’m a big fan of Riedel wine glasses.
I’ll admit I’ve been most happily duped all these years.
With the presses no longer rolling on the old, reliable Gourmet Magazine, the publisher has released the archived articles for the world to see on line, such as, “Shattered Myths: Expensive crystal? Coffee mug? Jelly jar? Does it really matter what you drink your wine from?”
Daniel Zwerdling’s August 2004 article knocked me off my high horse.
Apparently the scientific community no longer endorses the idea of mapping tastes to specific areas of the tongue, which thereby destroys most of the logic of how a glass of a certain shape can direct wine to where it will be best enjoyed in the mouth.
However, the scientists that have debunked the effectiveness of Riedel in making wine taste better are also willing to defend the heightened experience based on the placebo effect.
As with so many things in life, if you believe the wine tastes better, then, to you, it will actually taste better.
No matter what, if I’m served the same wine in a Styrofoam cup and in a nice glass, I’ll think it tastes better in the glass any day.
I have always believed that this bussiness of a different glass for each varietal was hocus-pocus. A way to create bussiness for glassmakers by exploiting newly minted wine-tasters, making the process more complicated than it is. Yes, I agree that wine tastes better in stemware, versus paper cup. But that’s about it.
Thanks for the comment, Moris!
I’ve enjoyed my collection of a number of different Riedel Vinum stems over the years, but at this point, as they break, I won’t be replacing them!
Just keep all those “freebies” from the various tasting events you attend. Those glasses come in all shapes and sizes, and “The Price is Right,” Bob. And, yes, in a hotel room we’ve drank from plastic & styrofoam cups, and it does affect the taste.