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Following the sound advice I received from Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey, I was washing some crystal the morning after enjoying a nice bottle of wine (2002 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru, Les Folatieres from Vincent Girardin). When Bobby told us (at a wonderful meal at the French Laundry), I thought there was some magical reason to clean your crystal in the morning. When I asked, he laughed and said, “No, you’ll be too drunk to be cleaning glasses that expensive, wait “˜till the morning.”
In any case, sober, alert, and after having my morning espresso, I let a Riedel Sommelier 4400/0 (I suppose I should have been using a 4400/7, but I don’t have any) glass slip from my hand. Granite is not a good surface to be dropping anything on, but I didn’t realize crystal fragments that much. I’ve never seen so many micro fragments everywhere from a dropped glass.
The accident was due to my new technique of rinsing the glasses in reverse osmosis water after I wash them with tap water in the sink. Our new place has pretty hard water that leaves terrible spots (that can etch glass/crystal), so I added a step to rinse the glasses in RO water. A little too much handling and a careless grip, and the glass is no longer. Sad, but luckily not a red Bordeaux or red Burgundy glass.
