Cool Gift Ideas For Wine Lovers

By cbadmin on November 28, 2016

This year’s holiday gift guide features an idea for every budget with gifts that range in price from $17.99 to $1,499. To make the cut for this gift guide each item needed to be unique and/or truly deliver something meaningful to a wine lover. Consider starting with the gift of expertise, which never gets old in the wine world where it is impossible to know it all. I suggest an annual subscription to an expertly curated wine site such as Jancis Robinson (85£ per year)–a well-known content-heavy site with multiple contributors. On a smaller scale try The Wine Odyssey ($49). It’s a new site launched by wine consultant John Foy and features a weekly newsletter on a specific wine topic. Foy brings his conversational writing style to the mix along with tasting notes and several suggestions on best wines to cellar.

A Splurge Wine Book: If you need a truly decadent and impressive gift try The Impossible Collection of Wine: The 100 Most Exceptional Vintages of the Twentieth Century, By Enrico Bernardo Foreword by Michael Broadbent. This hand-bound oversize luxury tome features hand-tipped images and comes in a wooden crate; it merits a coffee table of its very own. Author Enrico Bernardo was named Best Sommelier of the World in 2004 and shares his encyclopedic wine knowledge in this retrospective of some of the world’s finest vintages and wines. $845

Cool Wine Maps: Wine critic and Vinous founder Antonio Galloni consulted with numerous Napa winemakers (including luminaries from wineries such as Harlan and Screaming Eagle) and famed Italian cartographer Allesandro Masnaghetti to create a bird’s-eye view of the Napa region. The collector’s edition map comes from a limited run of 100 hand-numbered and signed maps printed on deluxe quality paper and rolled for framing. $500. More modestly priced versions are avaiable as well. All maps can be found online at VinousMedia.com or at select tasting rooms in Napa.

The WineBuff: This is a wine glass microfiber polishing cloth that features detailed maps of Napa and Sonoma. The maps, which were developed in collaboration with Soireehome and VinMaps, also have interesting tidbits and trivia about each region. The maps are nice, but I am more delighted by the spot-free finish this cloth leaves on my glasses. I keep it in the glass cabinet and use it waaay to often, which is clearly indicative of my lousy glass-washing skills. $17.99

A Big Pinot Noir Party: If pinot noir is your wine lover’s soft spot then consider planning a trip to Oregon for next November to attend their annual !Salud! charity wine auction and tasting. Select vintners create custom cuvees for the event and guests also enjoy a special tasting of each winery’s current vintage. This is a full-on weekend of feasting on local provender and imbibing in some of the best pinot noirs made in Oregon. Auction takes place at The Allison Inn and Spa—one of the swankiest places to stay in Willamette. The full weekend experience is $500 per person.

The Year’s Most Innovative Wine Device: The Plum is a wine appliance that cools and preserves your wine at the same time. Just insert two bottles that you plan to enjoy over the next 90 days (that’s how long the preservation system guarantees freshness) and voila…it pours, preserves and chills your wine at the touch of a button. Read my story about it here. $1,499.