How to Clean Wine Glasses in the Dishwasher Without Breaking Them

 In CGT Blog

How to Clean Wine Glasses in the Dishwasher Without Breaking Them

You’ve just finished a glass of your favorite Late Harvest Riesling, and now it’s time to face the tricky task of cleaning your glass. But the last thing you feel like doing after a relaxing glass of Riesling is washing dishes. After all, wine is meant to be paired with cheese and crackers, not chores.

Especially after sharing a bottle of wine with friends, cleaning several easily broken, dirty wine glasses can be a daunting duty.

Don’t give in and buy tacky unbreakable wine glasses. Instead of painstakingly handwashing each wine glass, try these wine glass dishwasher tips!

  • Proceed with caution: Not all wine glasses are created equal. Crystal glasses, for instance, are not typically dishwasher safe and require additional care. If you’re unsure what kind of wine glasses you have, it may be wise to do a little more research to find out. It’s not a good idea to rush into throwing a family heirloom, limited edition, or favorite glass into the dishwasher without knowing how it will fare. When in doubt, do a test run with just one glass rather than risking breaking of all your wine drinkware.
  • Take it from the top: Always load wine glasses in the top rack of your dishwasher. If your dishwasher has a fold-down cup shelf, place your wine glasses with the glass stems in the divots of the shelf.
  • Work your angles: Be careful to angle the wine glasses in the dishwasher rack in such a way that water drains completely out of the glass. Water collecting in the bowl of the glass could lead to cloudiness or marks after the glass dries. When you’ve finished loading the rack, roll it into the machine with due caution, ensuring all glasses are clear of the top of the dishwasher.
  • Mind the gap: Space out your wine glasses one finger width apart so that the glasses can’t shift and bump into one another. Test the stability of their positioning as you slowly reinsert the rack.
  • Cool your jets: Running your dishwasher on high heat is too aggressive for wine glasses. Be sure that your dishwasher is set to warm.
  • Wash carefully: If your dishwasher has a delicate cycle, it’s a good idea to use it when washing wine glasses. Keep in mind that this cycle won’t be great at cleaning pots and pans but it won’t break your fragile wine glasses.
  • Squeaky clean: Choose a dishwasher detergent that targets cloudiness and add a rinse aid to eliminate water spots and enhance drying.
  • Cool off: It’s also a good idea to avoid a heated dry setting on your dishwasher since this could result in baked-on detergent that didn’t get washed clean during the wash cycle.
  • Accessorize: If you want to step up your wine glass dishwasher game, invest in a few of these dishwasher wine glass holders.

If you take precautions, you can (probably) wash your wine glasses in the dishwasher! Use these tips as a guide, and you’ll save yourself hours spent at suds-filled sink, meticulously washing your wine glasses one by one. That means more time spent drinking your favorite wines – like our 2016 Pinot Noir or our Late Harvest Chardonnay. So kick back, take a sip, and let your dishwasher do the rest.

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