I was having a casual dinner with some friends the other night at a local restaurant to catch up on our respective summers.  We ordered an array of salads and pizza as we dove into conversation.  While I entertained ordering wine with the food, I was still a little “overwhelmed” from celebrating my wife’s birthday and our 2nd anniversary the night before at Janos (www.janos.com) so I settled for iced tea. 

We all settled into our outdoor table, catching up on one another’s summer activities, when I noticed something that I had not seen in quite sometime: two very small glasses of red wine, each maybe 4 inches high at most and probably 2 inches in diameter.  I mean, these were SMALL….far more narrow than those found in a casual motel room!!  You certainly couldn’t swirl the wine, let alone place you nose through the opening for a sniff.  No, this glasses sent an subconscious message, “see me, gulp me,………..job done.”

The early evening was very festive with lots of laughter and energy and the food was enjoyable but somehow, I couldn’t keep myself from glancing at those odd glasses.  They just seemed a hypocrisy to the enjoyment of wine.  To me, it also sent the message that this restaurant had no intention of making wine an equal partner its cuisine, which was quite tasty.  I almost felt as if the wine was left over from a used jug or bottle.  Nonetheless, I was silent on my feelings for the entire evening until we got to the very end. 

I guess it was too many glances or just thinking too much.  Just as my friend was sipping from her second glass, I blurted out “ I can’t stand it when a restaurant pours wine into a tiny, motel bathroom glass.”  I was met with a barrage of counter responses that varied from “they do this all over Europe” to “you’re just a wine snob!”  Despite my protests about the inability to scent, swirl and taste the wine, it all fell on deaf ears.  No one seemed to care……….but me.  Imagine, I said, if a restaurant served a fragrant, stylish dish in a coffee cup where you couldn’t enjoy its presentation and the aromas were stifled?  They just laughed and shrugged their shoulders as if to say……..dream on.

However, their statement about my becoming a wine snob did resonate with me.  It made me wonder if they were on to something.  If I were not so consumed with wine, would I have felt the same?  For those who enjoy wine only occasionally, does it really matter to them whether the wine sits in “proper” stemware or in a motel glass?  Probably not.  We out for a very casual mid summer dinner and the size of the wine glass made not one  iota of difference in their experience. 

Perhaps, I’ve become just too stuffy, even in the most casual setting.  Could it be that I have extended my expectations in the fine dining setting to the most casual one?  Is it realistic to think that the service settings, including the wine stemware, should always be up to my standard?  Perhaps, the restaurant was cutting costs by utilizing these glasses or perhaps too many customers had broken stemmed glasses on the outdoor tables? 

Worse yet…………perhaps I am becoming a wine snob?  What do you think about this?  Does the glass make any difference to you??  Let us hear from you in the Community Forum.

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