I’m not here to judge you. Go into my cabinet and you’ll not only find stemless glasses but you’ll find them in all shapes and sizes. I started with 8 Riedels but now through breakage and the like, they’re a mixture of brands including some by Trudeau that have some terrible roundish shape and glass so thick that you’d be better off drinking from an old jam jar.

Why do I have them? Because they’re easy, that’s why. Unlike their fancy stemmed brethren, which I’ve been told for years need to be hand-washed, I can throw them in the dishwasher and forget about them. But a few months ago, in the surplus of time that the pandemic dropped upon us, I did two things: I dug into the cellar and dusted off my stemmed glasses (a dozen Riedel Brunello Vinums I bought in 1996!) and I started to act like a grown up again. And you know what else I did? I started to put them in the dishwasher and put my polishing cloth away. And guess what? The world didn’t collapse and none of the glasses broke. But I did start to fall in love again with having a proper glass of wine at dinner (and before dinner…and after, too). The wine’s aromas really are better, it’s much more elegant, and your hot little hands don’t mess up the temperature.

So if you’re looking for a Father’s Day gift that is as much about behaviour as it is about the physical object, look to proper stemmed glasses. I’m sort of keen on Riedel’s new Winewings series€”mostly because they’re new and pretty radical looking. The shape is supposedly based on the undulations of an airplane’s wing, which seems random, but they key feature is the lovely, featherlight thin glass… and the fact that they can go into the dishwasher. I realize I’ve now said Riedel three times in this post, but when I started my wine education all those years ago you had a choice between Riedel and Spiegelau, and if you were serious about glasses (and I was): Team Riedel all the way. If you want to go esoteric and spend a little more $$$, Mission Hill sells the handmade stems from Gabriel Glas for $75 and they are heavenly. I wouldn’t ever dream of putting them in a dishwasher€”but gosh, they’re purdy in your hand.

Either way you’ll add some panache to your nightly ritual.