Cleaning Stemware

[Fat Guy]

Wilfrid asked, on another thread:

Quote: from Wilfrid on 3:07 pm on Nov. 10, 2001

Any tips for cleaning all that fancy stemware?  The dishwasher makes them look nice, but causes casualties.  Handwashing means it's hard to get them really clean - or maybe I'm not trying hard enough.

For every day use, I have to admit I resort to clear, sturdy glasses which can stand some rough treatment.

Wilfrid, this is the device I recommend:

The Wine Glass Caddy

Here's a photo:

Restaurants use a professional version of the same item, which I imagine is available from restaurant supply places. I'll try to look into it, but I doubt the device would fit in a consumer dishwasher.

[Wilfrid]

I get the idea, and thanks (neat picture), but I'm not planning on upgrading to an industrial dishwasher.  My apartment has too many pretensions to being a professional restaurant as it is.

I wonder how other visitors here actually do wash their fragile stemware, assuming they're not caddy-owners?

[tommy]

i hand wash for two reasons:

1) they're delicate and break in the dishwasher.

2) the dishwasher tends to leave spots, or hardwater marks, or whatever they are.  inevitably the glasses get a white haze on them.

but, i've found that with hand washing, they rarely get completely towel dry and i *still* get marks.  

obviously i have no idea what i'm doing.  help!!!

[Fat Guy]

A caddy or other restraining device prevents breakage, or at least reduces the chance of breakage to less than the chance with hand washing.

I think the marks you're getting can be cured if you keep the rinse-agent well filled.

I find the machine does a better job than I can do by hand. Glasses emerge odor-free, which is especially important (I find it's really hard to get them fully washed by hand), and as long as they stand exactly upright they dry very well. My KitchenAid dishwasher has some restraining clips on the top rack that are adequate for normal sized white wine glasses, and I use a caddy on the bottom rack for the large stems.

I've heard that over time the harshness of dishwasher detergent will pit the surface of crystal. I use the gel, and I don't know if that helps, but I've never noticed any degradation and I've washed some of my stems a whole lot of times.

If I'm having serious wine people over for wine, I'll run my glasses through the dishwasher a second time, with no detergent.

If you wash by hand, I think the key things are to use very hot water (as hot as you can stand) and to dry with glass-towels. Paper towels don't work well, nor do generic dishtowels. Glass-towels are finely woven linen (or cotton) towels that really suck up the water on account of their particular weave and surface texture -- though they work much better if the glass and the water are hot.

Before I had a dishwasher in my apartment, the only way I found to get glasses truly clean when hand washing was to wash them, dry them, and then invert them over a pot of boiling water in order to steam them (and then to dry again).

I recommend you store your glasses upright, not inverted, by the way. This prevents chipping, as well as trapping of odors. And if they've been dormant for a while, I recommend washing or at least rinsing before using.

I've also become a fan of priming glasses, as they do at Mario Batali's restaurants. This provides additional insurance against lingering odors.

[NewYorkTexan]

My dishwasher has an attachment on the top rack that lets you "lock in" the wine glasses and that has worked well.  It is a fairly standard whirlpool model.

When cleaning my glasses in the dishwasher I wash them separately and never use detergent.  I found that it leaves a residual layer of detergent on the glasses.  The scented detergents are the worse, who wants to have wine glasses that smell like "country breeze"   The problem is that if I only have 4 or 6 glasses that need to be washed, it is waste to run the dish washer just for that.  My wife  constantly reminded of the wasted water and electricity in washing just a few glasses.

[NewYorkTexan]

This is from the Reidel web site.

"Riedel glasses are used in many thousands of hotels and restaurants around the world and are of course cleaned in professional dishwashers. This is to underline that you may use your dishwasher.

However, please be aware of some inconveniences:

Often the long-stemmed glasses do not fit in the racks.

The washing cycle takes approximately one hour or more. The cooling phase, which may take all night, exposes the glass surface to hot steam and later to highly-concentrated moisture, which over the years corrodes the fine surface of stemware. The result is that the glasses tarnish after many hundred cycles and show a slight irreversible blue film.

Glasses may take on a 'dishwasher smell' which is created by the chlorine in the water or the rinse aid. "

[Rebel Rose]

We find it's important to place the glasses over two prongs in the dishwasher. May seem obvious to us, uh, regular wine consumers, but for those of us who don't go through dozens of glasses a week, it can be a revelation. It keeps the glasses from spinning around like tops.

A cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle eliminates hard water deposits and gets everything crystal clear, assuming you have no other plumbing challenges.

If you're handwashing, keep a small spray bottle of 50:50 white vinegar and water handy--spritz the glasses and dry them with a lint-free towel. The glasses will look spotless.

I keep a gallon of white vinegar on hand all the time--it's great for soaking the char off burnt pots, cleaning grill accessories, wiping debris off kitchen windows, and soaking blood stains out of our white tile counters and grout. (Kidney, fava and Chianti, anyone?)

[carswell]

Don't have a dishwasher but even if I did I'd wash all stemware by hand. Dishwashered glass always has a dishwasher feel to it and often a dishwasher smell. My stems are spotless without vinegar too, thanks to a tip I picked up from one of Hugh Johnson's books: just before drying (with a lint-free glass cloth, of course), fill the glass with scalding hot water, let it sit for a few seconds, then empty it and dry immediately. No spots, no lint, no off odours.

[docsconz]

I use a great device I picked up in Montreal to hand wash my stemware. It is spongy like a carwash chamois with many smaller sections that really cover and clean the lip of the glass well. It also has a slight curve to it so that it gets the interior of the glass well without applying too much pressure. I have yet to break a glass while using it (knock on wood!). I wish I could remember the name. If I remember, I'll take a picture of it and post it.

[Fat Guy]

Isn't that the thing I broke one of your Riedel glasses with?

[paul mitchell]

CLR works extremely well on hard water deposits.

[docsconz]

Isn't that the thing I broke one of your Riedel glasses with?

←

I had forgotten about that! Actually one really has to work to break a glass with this thing.

[jeffZ]

My cleaning regimen:

1. Never wash the same night you finish the wine

2. Rinse immediately with hot water and let soak overnight

3. Hand wash (no soap) with a wine glass sponge

4. Dry with a lint-free towel so no little specks

Only broken one glass is 10 years. And that was because I was at someone else's house and I pressed the Spieglau a little too hard. Normally I am more careful.