Wine Glass Polishing Cloth: Two per Pack, Water Only
Glass Polishing Cloth, 2 Pack. 23.5" Γ 20" each. $22.95. 4.6β (89 reviews).
A wine glass polishing cloth this size lets you hold the bowl through the fabric, so your thumb never lands on what you just cleaned. Microfiber, lint-free, reusable. Damp for the film, dry for the shine, no bottle of anything.
Why microfiber, and why water only
Microfiber is polyester and polyamide split into strands1 finer than a human hair. The strands get into the film that dries on glass instead of shoving it around, and the fabric holds a static charge, so it pulls dust off instead of leaving its own lint. Cotton does neither.
Water does the rest. Any spray cleaner, including dish soap you didn't rinse off, dries as a film, and that film is what you're removing.
How to use a wine glass polishing cloth
- Rinse hot, don't air-dry. Spots are minerals left when a drop dries on its own. Polish while the glass is warm and they never form. Wash it first if it's greasy.
- Dampen one cloth, keep the other dry. Wring the damp one out hard. Barely wet is the target.
- Hold the bowl, never the stem. Cup the bowl through the dry cloth and support it from inside. Stems snap under a twist.
- Work inside out. Rim and inside the bowl first, then the outside, then stem and foot.
- Check it against a lamp. Turn it slowly; a breath of steam and one more dry pass clears what's left.
The two-cloth method
One damp for the bowl, one dry for the finish. That's why the pack has two. The damp cloth lifts the film, the dry one takes the moisture and the haze. Full walkthrough on how to polish wine glasses.
Riedel's cloth vs this one
Riedel's microfiber cloth is the default answer on wine forums. Good cloth. I'll tell you what's in this box: two cloths, 23.5" Γ 20" each, $22.95, microfiber, water only. Riedel's size and price move around by retailer, so I'm not quoting numbers I haven't checked.
Check two things on any cloth before you pay. How many, and how big. One cloth means no damp-and-dry pair. A small cloth means your hand ends up on the glass.
Washing the cloth (no softener, no bleach)
Machine wash warm, plain detergent. No fabric softener, no dryer sheets: softener coats the fibers in a lubricant that kills the static charge, so a cloth that used to lift film starts smearing it. Bleach eats the fibers.
Keep them out of the wash with cotton towels, which shed lint that microfiber collects. Tumble low or hang dry and they last years. Rest of the routine is on wine glass care.
Under $25 and it gets used, so it travels well in a bigger box of men's gifts.
Wine glass polishing cloth FAQ
What is the best polishing cloth for wine glasses? A large microfiber one, bought in pairs. Size matters more than the name: at 23.5" Γ 20" you wrap the bowl and hold the glass through the fabric, so no fingerprint lands on clean glass. This pack is two cloths for $22.95.
What's the best way to polish wine glasses? Hold the glass over steam from a mug of hot water for a second, then work two cloths: damp inside the bowl, dry over everything after. Support the bowl through the cloth with both hands, never twist against the stem, and check it against a lamp before it goes away.
What is the best cloth to use for polishing drinking glasses? The same microfiber cloth. Tumblers are easier than stemware because there's no stem to snap, so one dry cloth finishes the job. Skip cotton dish towels and paper towels. Both shed lint onto the glass, which is what you were trying to get rid of.
Sources
Every figure, rule and date above traces to one of these. We link the body that issued it, never someone's summary of it, and we don't link anyone who sells what we sell.
- Community Eye Health Journal 2010;23(74):57 (Ismael Cordero), via PubMed Central, How to care for and clean optical surfaces. Checked 20 Sep 2026.
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