Washing Champagne Glasses

In this section we discuss washing champagne glasses, serving preparation, and storage. There
are two basic ways to wash champagne glasses: by hand or the dishwasher.

Storage

Don’t store your fine champagne glasses upside down on a flat surface for long periods of time.
This puts added strain on the rim and also traps stale air in the bowl. Racks that let the glasses
hang freely upside down are best for long term storage. Go to our  How to Store Champagne  web
page.

Before Serving Champagne

For the finest service, steam your champagne glasses before use and polish them with a lint free
polishing cloth. Set them upside down in a chafing dish with a small amount of hot water and a
shallow perforated pan inside or use a steamer that has been removed from the heat after boiling
the water. Allow the steam to collect by placing a napkin or cloth over the group of glasses. This
ensures that the inside and outside of the champagne glasses are impacted. Polish the entire
glass, ensuring that only the polishing cloth comes in contact with the champagne glass.

Washing Champagne Glasses

There are two basic ways to wash champagne glasses: by hand or the dishwasher.

The Dishwasher

Good quality champagne glasses aren’t meant to be washed in a dishwasher for two reasons.
They are fragile so they break very easily and the detergent often leaves an invisible soapy
residue.
If you feel strongly about using a dishwasher (not recommended), load just the glasses by
themselves (no flatware, plates, etc.) Make sure the champagne glasses are stable and don’t
touch each other. Only use about half as much detergent as normal. Do not allow the champagne
glasses to go through the heat dry cycle for drying as it will bake in any residual detergent.
Remove the glasses as soon as the wash cycle is complete for hand drying.

Hand Wash

Many purists will religiously use only hot water with no detergent, at least triple rinsing and
making sure all of the residual wine is removed.

My recommended technique is to use plain grocery store washing soda (look in the detergent
section) – the cheapest you can find (it won’t have perfumes added). If you can’t find washing
soda, you can substitute baking soda.

Recommendation

After a party give yourself a break. Wait to hand wash champagne glasses the next day. A large
percentage of champagne glasses are broken when they are hand washed. Remove lipstick (this
may require some detergents, so rinse thoroughly), fill them with water, let them sit overnight then
tackle them the next morning.

1. If you need to use detergent (lipstick is hard to remove without it), use a very mild, liquid
detergent. Put one drop in each glass and use a clean sponge to cleanse the glass. Rinse the
Champagne glasses several times and be sure all the soap has been removed.

2. Keep the water temperature consistent. Sudden changes in temperature can cause a
champagne glass to crack.

3. If you are washing them in the sink, first put a towel or rubber mat in the bottom so that the
champagne glasses won’t bump the enamel if you drop one. Wash one glass at a time rather
than soaking multiple glasses together.

4. If you aren’t drying your champagne glasses right away, put warm water in the bowl of each
glass and let them sit until you are ready. This keeps streaking and water spots to a minimum.