A Sommeliers Guide to Gift Giving

By: Austin Tabbone

We all have it lurking somewhere in our homes, a monument to occasions past, a tribute to feigned attempts to relate to a hobby, a mosaic of thoughtful novelty, I am referring to of course, the junk drawer full of gifted novelty bar tools. Within a collage of parakeet wine openers, sulfur removers, oversized bedazzled glasses with our initials on it, wine aerators, wine glass charms, alligator and chicken shaped bottle stoppers, wine preservers, and various “pumps” lies a singular sentiment, “they know I love wine; this was a kind gesture, I just wish someone told them I don’t use any of this”. That’s where this article comes in, this is a Sommelier’s Guide to Gift Giving.

A sommelier is someone who has the privilege to work in wine professionally, I know, we can’t all be so lucky, but as a result, far too often people tend to get nervous gifting wine to me, fearful that I’ll have opinions on the bottles that they have chosen. These same fears often translate as I help folks pick out bottles to give as gifts to others, “what if they don’t like it” or “I don’t know what they actually like” often come up in conversation, to which I generally respond, “if they love wine enough to warrant a bottle as a gift, then they’re likely grateful just to receive a bottle they didn’t have to buy themselves”. We’ve all been there, the itch to open a bottle or yet another bottle pops up, this is where you come in, the hero who donated to the noble cause! Huzzah, there’s one more bottle on the rack, that one that Leah gave us as a housewarming last year, thank God, the night is saved!

If you want to be that hero, here’s how:

·      It’s Hard to Go Wrong with Bubbles: Thanks to the brilliant marketing of Champagne in the 1900’s, combined with the glamour of Hollywood, sparkling wine has become synonymous with celebration, luxury, and all-around good vibes, making it an instantly thoughtful nod to any gift giving moment. I love to suggest bubbles as a gift even more so purely because it is one of the only acceptable wines for people to modify, what I mean by this is, it is perfectly acceptable to put orange juice in bubbles to make a Mimosa, or Aperol to make a spritz, gin and lemon to make a French 75, peach puree to make a Bellini, the list goes on! This protects you when you might not know someone’s exact tastes, they have a wine with options, and you provided a party in the future, it’s a win-win! I recommend keeping the wine as a Blanc (white), that way it maintains versatility, look for the term “Brut” this means the wine is of average dryness (that’s how sweet or not it is), and find a wine labeled “Method Traditional”, “Champagne Method”, or “Metodo Classico”, this will mean that the wine was fermented in the same way as true Champagnes, where there is a fermentation in a large vessel and then a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Wines produced like this tend to be built to age for a little longer and therefor will taste better if the person gifted the bottle decides to save it!

·      Quantity Over Price: What’s better than one expensive bottle of wine? Several really good bottles! It’s usually agreed upon in gift giving etiquette that it’s the thought that counts, however, it’s hard for people to avoid seeing the dollar value of the bottles that you give as a gift. Perhaps they logged it into their wine tracking app like Vivino, they saw it in the grocery store, they’ve purchased it in the past, or they looked it up to learn about it, wine prices are everywhere, and a good gift is one that feels priceless! The odds of the person on the receiving end tallying up the total of several bottles of wine is incredibly low, but the odds of them saying “wow thank you for all this wine” are usually high, it’s hard to explain the endorphin boost of a well-stocked wine rack! Gift giving wine is all about casting a wide net, especially if you aren’t familiar with the tastes of the person you are gifting to, and giving multiple bottles as a gift does just that! Many wine retail shops offer discounts on multiple bottles making it reasonable to gift a few bottles without blowing the budget, one of each (sparkling, white, rosé, and red) is usually a good starting point for building a little gift pack, variety is the spice of life after all!

·      People are Always Grateful for New Experiences: I love recommending to people to gift obscure wines, the bottles that make them say “wow I didn’t even know they made wine in Armenia” or “what the heck is an orange wine?!”, even if they didn’t end up enjoying the wine, you provided the experience of trying something new for them, and you never know, you could be the acclaimed human to open their eyes to their new favorite style or place! If an oddball bottle isn’t in your comfort zone there are so many options these days for reasonably priced wine clubs, wine classes, or tasting experiences, that could completely transform the world of wine for someone! Just be careful of purchasing things with set dates, as you can’t expect to plan someone else’s life like that, providing an opportunity for someone to grow in a hobby they love however, is something that many folks will find incredibly thoughtful.

·      If You Really Don’t Want to Buy Wine: Sometimes you straight up don’t have time to go to the wine shop, or you just really don’t want to risk them not liking the wines, there are options trust me! My favorite non bottle gift to give is a nice decanter with decanter cleaning beads, little stainless-steel balls that won’t scratch your nice stemware but helps scrub the bottom of a decanter, they’re inexpensive enough to add on and often something people don’t think to get for themselves! Riedel also makes some phenomenal polishing cloths for drying glassware, something else folks usually don’t have, or are at least grateful replacements of! Lastly, find out if they have a Coravin, these are phenomenal little systems that let you access your wine without removing the cork, which for moderate drinkers, greatly preserves the lifespan of their wines! If they don’t have one, it makes for a fantastic but slightly pricey gift, if they do have one, I promise you they need more Coravin argon gas cartridges, a simple gift that goes an incredibly long way!

One of my favorite things about receiving wines from others as a gift is that it gives me a little insight into their life. It gives me something to talk about and connect with them over, and the wines they choose help me connect to them as a person, and I find that to be so special. For me It’s never “ugh they gave me Cabernet, I hate Cabernet” it’s “oh, they like Cabernet, now I know!”, receiving wine as a gift shows me what their favorite wine region is, their favorite style is, favorite grape, favorite producer, or even aesthetic that they like to go for, it’s them sharing what they love with me on the same level with something that I love, and that’s what wine is all about, sharing! At the end of the day, it is fairly agreed upon that it’s the thought that counts, and anyone lucky enough to receive a gift from you is honestly just happy to have you in their life, and that’s worth saying cheers to!