Answers.Body: <p>Smoked drinks are all the rage right now. I bet something like this happened. Scroll down a bit. <a href="http://www.frolichawaii.com/stories/something-new-downtowns-bar-leather-apron/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Smoked whisky drink</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/0oPjG.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0oPjG.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T16:23:27.973Z
Answers.Text: Wow: That would certainly do it!  Although this was several years ago, and it was a red wine glass.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lysander
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T16:47:13.277Z
Answers.Text: Who knows what drink they could've been making. I first saw this about 5 years ago but it just keeps getting more popular.
Answers.UserDisplayName: farmersteve
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T15:40:36.247Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-03-07T15:40:36.247Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: farmersteve
Body: <p>Some time ago I was at a dinner with an oenophile who ordered an expensive bottle of red wine.  After a few sips, he noted that it was very "oaky."  I thought it was excellent, but I didn't smell <em>any</em> significant wood flavors.  After some puzzling and nosing each others' glasses it became clear that his <em>glass</em> had an oak smell to it.</p>
  
  <p>It wasn't long before the sommelier confirmed this and began tripping over herself to apologize and make up for what was obviously a contaminated glass.  Thinking back on it I'm wondering: is it plausible that the restaurant was intentionally "salting" wine glasses with some sort of wood flavoring?  Is this a known practice in the industry?</p>
  
  <p>(Unless it was being stored in a working woodshop I'm having a hard time imagining how a fine wine glass in a restaurant would naturally acquire a notable oak flavor in the course of cleaning and storing.)</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T13:23:44.123Z
Comments.Text: Was the oenophile trained at all? Could there have been confusion about "oak" (I'm thinking cleaning product residue or even cigarette smoke residue)?
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T13:57:36.617Z
Comments.Text: @David - He's experienced, and I'm a super-taster with a notoriously keen nose.  I don't know if the claim was explicitly "oak."  I wouldn't claim to know the wood specie, but it was definitely an "aging barrel wood" nose.  Keep in mind I had a glass with the same wine in it, so we were able to pick out the difference imparted by the glass.  If both glasses had been similarly tainted, I would have just assumed it was part of the wine's profile.  He might have known enough to alert on the fact that the particular wine he chose should not have a strong wood component.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Lysander
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T14:14:04.863Z
Comments.Text: Then my bet would be that it was a previously used glass that wasn't washed properly and had some kind of residue (possibly whisky). I propose an experiment (and I'll try it myself in the coming days): put a half-measure of whisky in a wine glass, swirl, empty (drink). Leave to dry overnight, pour in a reasonably big & powerful red... smell. In any case I would be shocked if this was intentional. To pick a small nit, "supertasters" aren't necessarily "better" tasters -- that's almost entirely down to olfaction and training. We just are capable of detecting a couple chemicals others can't.
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T16:27:37.290Z
Comments.Text: @David: You're right of course about the supertasting.  I don't know how to qualify my olfactory acuity (except perhaps as "notoriously keen" ;)  I like the experiment idea, and I suspect it will produce the effect we observed (especially with a quarter-cask Laphroaig I have on hand).  But keep in mind this was a red wine glass at a fine restaurant: Is it conceivable they would be serving whiskey neat in such a glass?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Lysander
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-03-07T16:37:34.853Z
Comments.Text: If it was strongly oaky, a better bet might be a Bourbon (virgin cask aging). There are many ways it could end up in a "wrong" glass: by customer request, or it could be used as a temporary vessel, or a staff member's surreptitious quaff with whatever was on hand. Who knows.
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Tags: <wine><restaurants>
Title: Do restaurants ever oak their wine glasses?
UserDisplayName: Lysander
ThreadText: # Do restaurants ever oak their wine glasses?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-03-07)
  
  Some time ago I was at a dinner with an oenophile who ordered an expensive bottle of red wine. After a few sips, he noted that it was very "oaky." I thought it was excellent, but I didn't smell *any* significant wood flavors. After some puzzling and nosing each others' glasses it became clear that his *glass* had an oak smell to it.
  
  It wasn't long before the sommelier confirmed this and began tripping over herself to apologize and make up for what was obviously a contaminated glass. Thinking back on it I'm wondering: is it plausible that the restaurant was intentionally "salting" wine glasses with some sort of wood flavoring? Is this a known practice in the industry?
  
  (Unless it was being stored in a working woodshop I'm having a hard time imagining how a fine wine glass in a restaurant would naturally acquire a notable oak flavor in the course of cleaning and storing.)
  
  **Tags:** wine, restaurants
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Was the oenophile trained at all? Could there have been confusion about "oak" (I'm thinking cleaning product residue or even cigarette smoke residue)?  
  > **username_0**: @username_1 - He's experienced, and I'm a super-taster with a notoriously keen nose.  I don't know if the claim was explicitly "oak."  I wouldn't claim to know the wood specie, but it was definitely an "aging barrel wood" nose.  Keep in mind I had a glass with the same wine in it, so we were able to pick out the difference imparted by the glass.  If both glasses had been similarly tainted, I would have just assumed it was part of the wine's profile.  He might have known enough to alert on the fact that the particular wine he chose should not have a strong wood component.  
  > **username_1**: Then my bet would be that it was a previously used glass that wasn't washed properly and had some kind of residue (possibly whisky). I propose an experiment (and I'll try it myself in the coming days): put a half-measure of whisky in a wine glass, swirl, empty (drink). Leave to dry overnight, pour in a reasonably big & powerful red... smell. In any case I would be shocked if this was intentional. To pick a small nit, "supertasters" aren't necessarily "better" tasters -- that's almost entirely down to olfaction and training. We just are capable of detecting a couple chemicals others can't.  
  > **username_0**: @username_1: You're right of course about the supertasting.  I don't know how to qualify my olfactory acuity (except perhaps as "notoriously keen" ;)  I like the experiment idea, and I suspect it will produce the effect we observed (especially with a quarter-cask Laphroaig I have on hand).  But keep in mind this was a red wine glass at a fine restaurant: Is it conceivable they would be serving whiskey neat in such a glass?  
  > **username_1**: If it was strongly oaky, a better bet might be a Bourbon (virgin cask aging). There are many ways it could end up in a "wrong" glass: by customer request, or it could be used as a temporary vessel, or a staff member's surreptitious quaff with whatever was on hand. Who knows.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2017-03-07. Score: 4
  
  Smoked drinks are all the rage right now. I bet something like this happened. Scroll down a bit. [Smoked whisky drink](http://www.frolichawaii.com/stories/something-new-downtowns-bar-leather-apron/)
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/0oPjG.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/0oPjG.jpg)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Wow: That would certainly do it!  Although this was several years ago, and it was a red wine glass.  
  > **username_2**: Who knows what drink they could've been making. I first saw this about 5 years ago but it just keeps getting more popular.  
  
  ---
  
  