To make wine glasses look perfect, try this microfiber polishing cloth

While sitting at the bar of Zach Pollack’s new Alimento in Silver Lake, you might notice wine manager Ryan Wenger polishing stemware. As he finishes each glass, he holds it up to the light: perfect.

What’s that he’s using to polish the delicate glasses to such good effect?

Turns out it’s a special cloth from Riedel, the famed Austrian glass company that makes a special glass for just about every wine in the world. “You can find the Riedel microfiber polishing cloth online at Amazon or from Williams-Sonoma,” Wenger says.

When faced with a barrage of wine glasses to wash and dry after a particularly wine-intensive dinner party, that polishing cloth comes in handy. At Williams-Sonoma each cloth costs $8.45.

They really are terrific, polishing the glasses without leaving a speck of lint behind. The texture is different from many other microfiber cloths. It’s very smooth, almost a satin, and thick but flexible.

It comes with instructions: After washing the glass under warm water with minimal detergent, rinse and turn the glass over to drain. The trick is not to let the water dry on the glass. Hard water always leaves spots that no amount of polishing will eliminate. Just be careful when using the cloth to dry the glass not to give the stem any torque.

My wine glasses never looked so good. And actually, polishing the glasses now feels relaxing, meditative. It’s almost a pleasure. Almost.

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