Riedel For Less, A Lot Less

This doesn’t happen often.  Riedel, maker of some of the most expensive wine glasses in the world, is having a sample sale in New York City.  Save the dates –  April 26 through April 28 from 10Am – 7pm.  If it’s anything like Riedel’s first ever sample sale last summer, it will be worth getting in line extra extra early.  I know because I was at that sale and number 5 in line.

Whether you agree with Riedel that specific glass shapes make the wine taste as good as it should, and better than any other wine glass out there doesn’t matter.  The line is sexy and modern, and looks great regardless of what you pour in it, be it a $200 Napa Cab or 2 Buck Chuck (has anyone tried that, does 2BC taste better in Riedel?)

You can expect to see the very hip “O” line of stemless glasses, Vinum and Sommelier series wine glasses, sets of varietal specific glasses, and decanters that look more like glass sculptures than functional vessels.  If we’re lucky, the new Swirl stemless collection will be marked down too.

Discounts are advertised to be up to 70% off retail.  From my experience, I calculated the cost to be about less than  $10 a stem.

There were no carts or baskets to put all your loot in while you kept shopping.  With arms full of tubes of  Riedel O glasses, I had to be really careful not to knock anything over.  I recommend you bring some sort of big huge shopping bag.  Oh, and they don’t ship.  Which is why I was limited to what I could carry on a plane.  (My husband was happy about that – he doesn’t get my wine glass obsession.)

If you go, be sure to open the box or tube of glasses and make sure nothing is broken.  I forgot to do that and found a glass with a big scratch on it that I couldn’t take back.

The sample sale will be inside the Chelsea Market.