Some people seem to be particularly good at choosing gifts for others, some not. As a friend once pointed out to me when I said that I didn’t have the knack, all you have to do is think carefully about what someone might like. Thanks a lot. Even if that advice gets to the core of the problem, it’s a bit too simple and obvious to be helpful. Wine presents fewer difficult choices than books for example, but wine choices are not entirely obvious either.
Wedding season has begun, and wine is a popular gift for bride and groom. Summer also prompts the need for thank-you gifts when people have been the vacation guests of generous family members or friends. Those who have decided to give wine will sometimes call to discuss it, and I ask a few questions to guide their choices. Even if they think they know what they want, they sometimes change their minds.
The discussion should begin and end with a budget, of course. That’s the easy part because gift givers have easy control of the numbers. The second question that I ask is whether they know if the giftee enjoys both red and white wines. If they don’t have an answer, then red is the better choice because more people equate fine wine with red wine and think of whites as “cocktail” wine, not true at all but nevertheless the prevailing logic. So the giftee will likely appreciate a gift of reds more.
My next question is whether they know if the giftee enjoys both Californian and European wine. If they have an answer to that question, great, because we have both, so we can proceed to a final choice. If not, I recommend Californian wine because Americans drink more Californian wine than they do wine from any other region in the world. Needless to say, phone calls often come from people who are deliberately looking for Italian wine since Celebrations Wine Club is the only wine club that truly specializes in both Italian and Californian wines. Giftees are often those who travel to Italy or who are Italian Americans with a particular appreciation for Italian wine. Regardless, sometimes the gift giver decides on a combination of both Californian and Italian wines.
Another consideration is the income level of the giftee or how much that person is likely to spend on wine for himself or herself. In other words, Reserve wines would be the best choice for those people who might spend more money on wine for themselves unless the gift giver knows differently. For example, instead of a three month gift membership of the Artisan Series, the better gift would be one month of the Collector Series or two months of the Winemaker Series. By definition, a gift is something special, and one person’s special is another one’s banal even if normal retail for Artisan Series wines is usually between $18 to $24 a bottle, which is not inexpensive wine by any objective definition.
But don’t let this information discourage you from calling me. As anyone knows, who has ever dialed 800-700-6227, I thoroughly enjoy talking to club members. It takes me away from office tasks that are way less entertaining.
A short framework for choosing a wine gift
The questions described above amount to a decision tree, and writing it out makes the process quicker for anyone facing the same problem. Budget comes first because it eliminates most of the field. After that the useful questions are about the recipient’s habits rather than about the wine.
- What is the budget, including anything spent on presentation or delivery?
- Does the recipient drink red, white or both, and do they favor one strongly?
- Is the wine meant to be opened at a specific event, or kept?
- Where will they store it, and for how long?
- Does the occasion call for one impressive bottle or several ordinary ones?
The last question is where most gift-givers go wrong. A single bottle at the top of the budget reads as a considered gesture, while the same money spread across three bottles reads as a general contribution to the household. Neither is wrong, but they say different things and the occasion usually indicates which is wanted.
Formats, and what each one is good for
Bottle size is a lever most people never touch, and it changes the character of a gift more than a modest step up in price does. Standard container sizes for wine are set in regulation, and net contents must be declared on the label, a labeling requirement overseen for packaged goods generally in the model regulations maintained by the NIST Office of Weights and Measures.
| Format | Volume | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Half bottle | 375 ml | Dessert wines, a single guest, tasting a range |
| Standard | 750 ml | Most gifts and most tables |
| Magnum | 1.5 liters | Weddings, anniversaries, wines meant to be kept |
| Double magnum | 3 liters | Large gatherings and commemorative gifts |
Half bottles are the underrated option in that list. They suit a household where only one person drinks wine, they make a dessert wine affordable, and two of them allow a comparison that a single bottle cannot. Their disadvantage is that fewer wines are offered in the format at all.
A magnum carries a second advantage beyond ceremony. Wine ages more slowly in a larger bottle because the ratio of wine to the small amount of air beneath the closure is more favorable, which is why collectors favor the format for anything they intend to hold for years.
Gifts that have to survive the trip
Wine is durable in a cellar and fragile in a car trunk in August. Heat is the enemy that does the most damage in transit, and it does that damage invisibly, since a bottle that has been cooked looks exactly like one that has not until it is opened. Anyone carrying wine to a summer wedding should treat the trunk as the worst available place for it.
A few habits prevent most of the trouble: keep bottles in the passenger compartment rather than the trunk, avoid leaving them in a parked car, and hand the gift over promptly rather than letting it sit in a warm entry hall. Our notes on practical wine knowledge cover storage in more detail, including what a recipient without a cellar can reasonably do.
Etiquette, briefly
A bottle brought to a dinner is a gift to the host, not a contribution to the evening’s service. Hosts have usually planned what they intend to pour, so the polite framing is to present it without expectation, and the polite response is to accept it without obligation to open it. Both sides relax once that is understood.
For gifts marking an event rather than a meal, a note explaining why that wine was chosen does more than an expensive label alone. The club’s own writing on wine for celebrations and the background on how Celebrations Wine Club operated reflect the same approach, from an era when its staff spent a good part of each week talking gift-givers through exactly these questions.
FAQ: giving wine
Is it rude if the host does not open the bottle I brought?
No. A host has usually chosen wines to match the meal, and setting a gift aside is normal rather than a slight. Giving it without expectation is the whole point of giving it.
What if I do not know the recipient’s taste at all?
Choose something versatile rather than something extreme, and lean toward a wine that suits an occasion rather than a specific dish. Sparkling wine is the most forgiving choice for exactly that reason.
How should the recipient store a bottle they are keeping?
Cool, dark and steady matters more than any particular temperature, and lying the bottle down keeps a cork from drying. A closet on an interior wall beats a kitchen counter or a refrigerator top by a wide margin.