Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s time to find gifts appropriate to your various recipients, from video games for adolescent boys to wine related gifts for your favorite adult ‘friends of the vine’. It’s likely that you know many of these folks — friends, family, co-workers, bosses, underlings, and people you owe money to are all as likely as not to be the kind of people who would appreciate wine related gifts to go with their favorite vino.
The problem is that a lot of wine related gifts out there are pure junk, and other stuff might seem great to you, but won’t really please it’s intended recipient. Wine, in particular, is a very subjective material — as much as you might adore a nice extra-dry Montrachet, many people prefer the more fruity Brunello di Montalcino. Or, on the off chance you don’t have money sitting around waiting to be thrown at someone, you can substitute something a little more available, like Sauvignon Blanc and Chianti, respectively.
On the positive side, there are plenty of options for wine related gifts in the world. It is the truth that people’s tastes vary so much that unless you know someone very well already, it’s a risk to buy them any kind of wine. Related gifts, however, are many and much less chancy. Here are just a few top ideas:
Wine of the Month Clubs
There are dozens of wine-of-the-month clubs that send monthly bottles of wine, often along with little wine related ‘gifts’ like specialized corkscrews or bottle holders. The wines themselves tend to be hit-or-miss, but a wine-of-the-month club will expose the giftee to many different vintages, which is always a good thing.
Decanters
Decanters make great gifts for lovers of red wine. Not only are they artistically beautiful, but they serve a very important purpose: letting the wine breathe in order to pull out the best flavor. Unlike many other elite wine related gifts, you can get a quality decanter for a little as $20 if you know where to shop, though they can run into the hundreds if you shop in the wrong places.
Wine Taster’s Journal
The whole concept of a wine-tasting journal is a fairly new idea, but they’re all the rage, and fairly inexpensive besides — starting at a mere $15, but looking like a few hundred. They’re leather-bound notebooks that provide a format for vinophiles to take notes on all of the vintages they’ve tried over the years — some even give you a place to paste the label from the bottle. popular for wine tasting parties. Starting as low as $15 each, the journals are also very affordable.
Even if none of these ideas immediately strikes a chord, don’t despair — there are a LOT of wine-related gifts out there. For more inspiration and help finding the perfect gifts, check out A Creative Expression, where gift-giving experts have amassed a magnificent collection of gifts for you to give your friends and family.
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