Wine is a popular gift choice for many occasions but especially goes well with Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and weddings. However, it could easily be a wonderful birthday gift, retirement gift, or a just because gift. Many companies make complete wine baskets, which you can purchase or make yourself, if you so desire. Wine makes excellent gifts because the bottles are beautiful and you can choose to wrap it, include it in a gift basket, or simply place a bow on it and give it as is.
Many people know wines well and know exactly the variety to choose for each person, but other people may be a bit new to wine themselves and may need a bit of assistance in picking out wine as gifts.
It’s probably best to go with a sweet or semi-sweet wine unless you are familiar with what the receiver enjoys drinking. If he or she drinks wine only occasionally, a sweet or semi-sweet wine is also the best bet. You could always purchase one sweet and one semi-sweet bottle of wine, depending on how many bottles you want to give.
Another point to the white wines is they are lighter and can be consumed with many varieties of meals, so it is more versatile than the dryer varieties. Again, if your recipient likes the dryer wines, then by all means, choose this variety for him or her.
Typical wine bottles come in the 750 ml bottles, but you can purchase the magnum, which is equal to two bottles of wine of the 750 ml, if you are sure of the variety you plan to purchase your recipient. Many people that receive bottles of wine save them for another occasion and do not consume them right away. After all, most wines taste better with age, so this is no problem.
If you decided to give wine gift baskets and are going to assemble them yourself, be sure that any non-wine items that you include complement the wine. Even though the food items probably won’t be eaten with the wine, it’s good etiquette to pair the wine with the right food items.
Lastly, the nice thing about giving wine is you can be extravagant as you like, or you can shop on a budget. Wines come in many different price points and if you are giving wine to casual wine drinkers, you do not have to worry about giving the most expensive wine. You probably would go broke doing so and the recipient would not truly appreciate the value of an expensive wine. On the other hand, if you are giving wine to a wine connoisseur and your intention is to purchase a rare wine for him or her, they are sure to appreciate the gesture.
Written by Robin Saunders, an experienced writer that tackles numerous topics including alcohol, DUI, breathalyzers etc. The author owns a breath tester himself and it’s time to get one for yourself.