Tag Archives: holiday wine gifts

Holiday wine gift guide 2023

Crepes and mulled wine at the Christmas market
“Will this pair with that Basque wine?”

The Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2023 — and don’t forget the cheap wine book

Not many holiday gift email suggestions from PR types this season, which was kind of surprising. But who needs those anyway, since they mostly push items that are unnecessary, expensive, or both?

Which we never have done on the blog. Quirky, maybe, but nothing more than that. And keep the blog’s wine gift buying guidelines in mind:

• Wine Simple ($19): A sommelier (don’t hold that against him) writes a wine book that offers mostly straightforward advice. How often do we see that?

• Tenuta Luisa Refosco ($21). Years ago, I tasted an Italian refosco, a red wine, at a wine lunch. This is fabulous, I said. Where can I buy it? Ha ha ha, everyone laughed. So I haven’t been able to write much about refosco since. But the Tenuta Luisa has decent availability, and it’s a fine example of the wine: Plum fruit, some pepper, and even savory.

• Berroia Txakoli de Bizkaia ($24). Ole & Obrigado, the Spanish importer, has always delivered value, even for wines that cost more than $15. This Basque white, made mostly with the local hondarrabi zuri grape, is a WC favorite. It’s dry (though some Basque wines have a little — but not offsetting – sweetness), as well as stone fruit, lots and lots of minerality, and just 12 percent alcohol.

• Wine glasses, one more time. These are for the beginning wine drinker, a set of six for $40 (and dishwasher safe).

• The cheap wine book is still available on Amazon; frankly, as timeless and as valuable as ever. Consider this the final shameless plug you’ll ever have to read.

Photo: “Crepes and mulled wine at the Christmas market” by austinevan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2022
• Holiday wine gift guide 2021
• Holiday wine gift guide 2020

Holiday wine gift guide 2022

wine racks at a storeThe Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2022 — value, value, and more value

Once again this year, the WC received the same sort of news releases for holiday season wine gifts — lots of overpriced items that hardly anyone actually needs. That means you, Yeti wine cooler.  Plus, and as always, lots and lots of plus for the Coravin opener, which begs the question: How many Coravins does one person have to have?

Which doesn’t those of us much good who want quality and value, as well as a gift we will enjoy. Which brings us to the blog’s 2022 holiday wine gift guide. As always, keep the blog’s wine gift buying guidelines in mind:

• Give the gift of the blog, and save the WC from all that Substack subscription advice.  One year of the newsletter at 20 percent off, just $56. Click this link to send a gift subscription. Use the email address of the person getting the subscription where it asks for an email, add a credit card, and they’ll get the $10 Hall of Fame, the Cheap Wine of the Year, and all of the rest — plus the rants and analysis that have made the blog what it is.

• Windows on the World, 35th edition ($21): There are probably a trillion wine books, including mine (which is almost out of print). But the Zraly is almost certainly the best overall look at wine and how to make sense of it. I own a couple of editions, and it has been the textbook for most of the college wine classes I have taught. And if it seems like I recommend it regularly, that’s because it’s that good.

• The Language of Yes Syrah 2020 ($40, sample, 13.9%) is a collaboration between Randall Grahm, who is about as iconoclast as wine gets, and E&J Gallo, which isn’t. Ever. In any way. Hence, it’s an interesting and well-made wine that doesn’t taste particularly a Randall Grahm wine, and especially a syrah. Remember this? Instead, it’s less meaty, but fruitier (black fruits) and more rich. And, because it is what it is, it has received high praise from the Winestream Media. That’s something that doesn’t always happen with Grahm wines.

• Yes, wine glasses seem sort of cliched — until yours break and you need new ones And then they’re expensive and confusing.  But a company called made-in has quality glasses — four red and four white for $69.

Photo:”More Wine Racks” by Didriks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2021
• Holiday wine gift guide 2020
• Holiday wine gift guide 2019

Holiday wine gift guide 2021

holiday gifts
“That metal foil cutter looks super cool.”

The Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2021 — which, of course, includes things that aren’t wine

Do a Google search for wine gifts, and they tend to repeat each other — as if one gift guide borrowed from another gift guide which borrowed from another gift guide. Consider this waterproof Bluetooth glass holder so you can listen to tunes and drink wine while in the shower. It showed up in so many gift roundups that it’s sold out.

Which, of course, we don’t do here. Hence, the blog’s 2021 holiday wine gift guide, which includes things that aren’t wine. And, as always, keep the blog’s wine gift buying guidelines in mind:

• Steven Spurrier: A Life in Wine ($45): Spurrier, who died this year, could have been the most important wine writer in those ancient, pre-Parker days. If he had not held the Judgment of Paris, who knows how long it would have taken California wine to take its place in the world? But Spurrier was much more than a wine writer; he was also an important wine educator and leading wine merchant who owned a wine shop in Paris  — hardly something most Britons would do.

• Smith-Madrone’s riesling ($35, sample, 12.9%) is a wine that reminds me just how amazing wine can be. For one thing, California doesn’t do much riesling, and it certainly doesn’t do much well. But this one is a revelation, combining California-style fruitiness with the varietal characteristics that make great riesling so much fun to drink. That means lime zest, a bit of tingliness in the back, a hint of petrol, some sweetness floating around to remind you it’s riesling, just enough acidity to greet the sweetness, and stoniness in the finish.

• Regular visitors know that the Wine Curmudgeon is not much for wine gadgets; he’d rather buy wine. Still, there’s something about this metal foil cutter ($25) that strikes me as worthwhile. Too many bottles still have foil caps and too many of those refuse to come off with a twist. And, frankly, using a waiter’s corkscrew to remove the foil leads to cursing and cut fingers. So why not a foil cutter?

• Laherte Freres Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature ($50, purchased, 12.5%) is an amazing bubbly, everything that Champagne – the sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France – should be, and especially for those of us who prefer a cleaner, more minerally style.  One estimate gives it another 20 years in the bottle, and I wouldn’t argue with that at all.

And, finally — shameless plug alert! — give the blog as a gift: One year of the newsletter at 20 percent off, just $56. Click this link to send a gift subscription. Use the email address of the person you’re giving the subscription to where it asks for an email, add a credit card, and they’ll get the $10 Hall of Fame, the Cheap Wine of the Year, and all of the rest — plus the rants and analysis that have made the blog what it is.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2020
• Holiday wine gift guide 2019
• Holiday wine gift guide 2018

Holiday wine gift guide 2020

holiday wine 2020The Wine Curmudgeon holiday wine gift guide 2020, and even a couple of things that aren’t wine

The big trend in wine gifts this year? Non-alcoholic products, if the mail in my inbox is any indication. Or — shudder — a $426 decanter. We can do much better than that; after all, why else does the blog exist? Keep in our wine gift buying guidelines in mind, as well.

Consider:

• Joe Roberts’ “Wine Taster’s Guide” ($14.99, Rockridge Press) is neither pretentious nor expensive — which is why it’s on this list. Joe, who I’ve known almost since I started the blog, is passionate about the failings of post-modern wine writing, and especially that we buy wine we may not like because the process is so intimidating.

• The Benziger de Coelo Quintus Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016 ($68, sample, 14.1%) is a gorgeous, structured — albeit not especially subtle — Sonoma Coast pinot noir. It’s full of dark fruit, maybe even some tea, and the soft tannins that used to be common in California pinot. Not quite sure how I got a sample, but very glad I did. Highly recommended.

• The Wine Curmudgeon has a drawer full of wine-stained tablecloths, mostly from dripping wine bottles. Hence, the marble wine coaster ($19.95), which not only would have saved many of my tablecloths but looks good, too.

• Ice wine is one of the great joys of the wine world, but is increasingly difficult to find and increasingly expensive. And it wasn’t easily available or cheap to begin with. So when a winemaker reader tipped me to the Kiona Vineyards Chenin Blanc Ice Wine 2018 ($50/375 ml bottle, sample, 9%), I asked for a sample — something I rarely do. And I was not disappointed. This is ice wine in all its glory — lusciously sweet, but balanced, with pineapple and tropical fruit and refreshing crispness. Highly recommended.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2019
• Holiday wine gift guide 2018
• Holiday wine gift guide 2017

Holiday wine gift guide 2019

holiday wine gift guide 2019
No, the Wine Curmudgeon is not suggesting anyone buy this wine workout Christmas tree ornament.

The Wine Curmudgeon holiday wine gift guide 2019 — great wine and even a wine coloring book

• Holiday wine trends 2019

The Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2019 offers practical, value-oriented, yet still fun gifts. What else would you expect after all these years?

Consider:

• This year’s collection of wine books was, sadly, a bit pretentious for the blog. But never fear: How about a wine coloring book? When Life Gets Complicated, I Wine ($13), with 12 colored pencils. Take that, wine snobs.

• The Edmunds St. John Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir 2018 ($29) is the current vintage of one of the best wines I have tasted in almost three decades of doing this. It’s a California wine made with the gamay grape in a region far, far off the tourist track. There usually isn’t much of it, so when I saw it on wine.com, it moved to the top of the holiday wish list. Highly recommended, and marvel at how this wine reflects the berry fruit of the gamay, as well as its terroir.

• Italy’s white wines are too often overlooked, and especially those made with the arneis grape. The Vetti Roero Arneis 2018 ($22) is one such example — almost nutty, with wonderful floral aromas and the soft, citrusy flavors. Drink it on its own, or with holiday seafood or poultry. Highly recommended.

• The Repour Wine Saver ($9 for a 4-pack) is a single-use stopper that preserves leftover wine one bottle at a time. In this, I was surprised at how well it works, and it’s not as expensive as more complicated systems like the VacuVin.

• Wine-Opoly ($21), because why shouldn’t we try to take over the wine world just like Big Wine? No dog or iron playing pieces in this wine-centric version of Monopolyl rather, they are wine bottles.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2018
• Holiday wine gift guide 2017
• Holiday wine gift guide 2016

Holiday wine gift guide 2016

Holiday wine gift guideThe best holiday wine gift advice: Buy what they want, not what you think they should want

Just in time for the blog’s holiday wine gift guide 2016– an article on rightpricewine.com citing the Wine Curmudgeon’s always sensible gift giving advice: “Buy wine that the person would like, not what you think they should like.”

That’s the thought behind this year’s gift suggestions, culled from interviews with retailers and consumers as well as the countless news releases I get during the holiday season. The trend this year? More wine and less accessories, with consumers deciding that gadgets aren’t as enjoyable in 2016 as a quality bottle of wine.

This year’s gift ideas:

• Chablis for the California chardonnay drinker who wants something different. Chablis, chardonnay from Burgundy in France, doesn’t have any oak. That means a more austere and more minerally wine, in contrast to the richer and more buttery California chardonnays. One possibility: Jean-Pierre Grossot Chablis, about as much of a steal as a $20 wine can be.

• Trade up a cabernet sauvignon drinker who wants something more complex. The Faust, from Napa Valley, is the sort of $50 wine I wish I got to taste more often. It’s firmly rooted in Napa, made in a decidedly New World style, but it also shows that quality wine is about more than just flashy fruit.

• Something different for the wine geek. Look for top-notch wine made with odd grapes – an Italian refosco, for instance, a Spanish malvar, or a Hungarian Tokaj. Each can cost as little as $10.

• Koval rye whiskey, because the WC does not live by wine alone. I’ve been a rye drinker since the bad old days, when all you could find was what we fondly called Old Overcoat. The craft spirits boom has changed that, and the Koval ($50) is rye that is more than a bourbon knockoff, something spicy and intriguing.

More holiday wine gift guides
• Holiday wine gift guide 2015
• Holiday wine gift guide 2014
• Holiday wine gift guide 2013
• Expensive wine 89: Bonny Doon Old Telegram 2014
• Expensive wine 82: Anne Amie Winemaker’s Select Pinot Noir 2012

Holiday wine trends 2016

Holiday wine trends 2016Holiday wine trends 2016: We’re spending the same amount of money, and spending it on rose and sauvignon blanc

Three things stand out in deciphering holiday wine trends 2016 after talking to retailers around the country:

• We’re going to spend money on wine this season, but not necessarily any more than we’ve spent in years past.

• Rose and sauvignon blanc, hardly traditional favorites, look to be big sellers.

• And all that talk about adventurous wine drinkers going off the beaten path for wine to drink? It’s just talk – cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, and chardonnay are still the wines we’re buying for the holidays.

Price, first: Consumers are still looking for value, say retailers, and that’s true whether the wine costs $15 or $50. Robert Pennington of Pogo’s in Dallas (where the Wine Curmudgeon buys wine when the Cubs win the World Series) says his customers are finding tremendous value from France’s Rhone with red blends from $15 to $25, In this, he says, they may be gravitating from Spain, long the value leader.

As to rose and sauvignon blanc? They’re cheap, they’re mostly well made, and almost all of them offer tremendous value. Michael Osborn, the founder and vice president merchandising for Wine.com, says it seems that people who buy more expensive California wine are also buying sauvignon blanc – call it the second label for big red drinkers. They keep it in the fridge, often spending as little as $10 a bottle, for a glass before dinner.

Osborn also says that the rose naysayers, who thought pink wine’s surge in popularity was be a one-off (does anyone remember moscato?), should note that Wine.com’s rose sales grew almost 50 percent in the first 11 months of 2016.

And why the familiar? When you’re giving a gift, or even buying wine for yourself for a special occasion, you’re less likely to gamble, says Glenn Ehrlich, the co-owner of the Denver wine shop Corks. Trying something new is well and good for Tuesday night takeout, but when you need to buy the boss a present? Out with the odd, and in with the wine you know he is going to like.

“People need to splurge more on themselves,” he says. “They should take a chance and try something they normally wouldn’t try because it isn’t what they normally drink.”

More about Holiday wine trends
• Holiday wine trends 2015
• Holiday wine trends 2014
• Holiday wine trends 2013