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I've been to a Riedel seminar. I thought then and think now that it was nonsense. Beautifully put together nonsense, making good use of the placebo effect, of the human tendency to agree with seeming experts, and of group dynamics, but nonsense nonetheless.

That said - if you're ignorant, or if you have a tendency to allow your views to be swayed by others, then you probably really will experience the wine as being better when drunk from the Riedel glasses. Placebo effects are incredibly powerful - it's been shown that you can alleviate the perception of pain when removing wisdom teeth by injecting saline; that aspirin works better if it's expensive and heavily branded than if it's cheap and generic, and that telling cleaners that their cleaning activity is good exercise actually causes them to start losing weight. Unfortunately, if you have confidence in your own palate and are disinclined to be swayed by others, the wine will taste pretty much the same to you whether you're drinking it from plastic cups, cheap Walmart glasses, the 'wrong' Riedel glasses or the right Riedel glasses. Any differences caused by the differing amount of exposure to the air, the concentration of the fumes or so on will be fairly minimal even in the most extreme comparisons (say between the plastic cups and the right Riedel glasses) and will be pretty much non-existent in any less extreme comparison.

I drink my wine (a 2005 Meursault this evening; Javillier's Les Tillets) from proper stemware because it simply feels nicer. It introduces a certain ceremony and formality, which I like. (The stemware I use is from Schott Zweisel, who are slightly cheaper than Riedel and actually have a better product - they make titanium crystal, which has actually been properly tested by recognised, independent bodies, and shown to be tougher than lead crystal which means it breaks less and can be safely put through the dishwasher. They have the guts to submit their claims to proper scrutiny, unlike Riedel.) I get aesthetic satisfaction from the appearance of the glass; its feel and the way the wine looks in it. But I don't delude myself that it makes a significant difference to the taste.

I'm peeved by this post because it's caused me to lose respect for Deb's opinions on wine. I suppose most of her judgments aren't affected by these influences, but I didn't want to think that she could be this easily fooled. If she tested her palate in the conditions applied in the studies described in that Gourmet article I'd be absolutely astonished if she could reliably discern a difference between the way the same wine tastes in different glasses. Though if she could that would be a tribute to her powers of taste, and it would rightly get her considerable attention and kudos...