10 Gift ideas for Wine Lovers
If you are looking for the perfect gift idea for that lover of wines, look no further we have you covered with this top 10 list from our sommelier Frederic Duverger – and a little bonus gift idea at the end.
A Bottle Opener
They all work well, just need to find the design you like and the price you want to spend on it, knowing that the simplest one always works. We use a sommelier-approved model that will outlive us.
And in case you run out of bottle opener (which should never happen) you can open your bottle of wine with a little trick.
Week in Uzès
Here’s an extra special gift for all your food and WINE lovers: A fabulous week in southern France in France’s largest wine-producing region. The week in Uzès is the Let’s Eat the World culinary tour which includes an entire day devoted to wine. Besides a week where wine is just as important as the food you will cook with our chef, you get to spend a full day with a wine educator visiting vineyards and learning how to be a more discerning wine-taster.
A Decanter
From 10€ to a few thousand, from the most classic one to the piece of art… decanters are both useful (to bring air and life to your wine, or to make sure you are not pouring sediments into the glass when decanting an old vintage wine) and beautiful objects that a wine lover has to have in his house.
The most efficient and classy ones probably being the Riedel ones, which you can find on their site as well as a few examples on Amazon.
For an even classier look. Check out these nice pieces of art from the sculptor Pierre Meneau
A very nice object called the « Pocket Decanter » by Optiwine, could be very useful if you are missing a decanter to aerate your wine.
If you are having trouble finding the above-mentioned decanters, you can always check our Amazon.
A Wine Aerator
No decanter or optiwine…. No problem…. The wine aerator does it! Space saver, very easy to use, just pour the wine through it and the liquid will flow into a vortex which will naturally aerate the wine. You can easily find this on Amazon.
A Vacu Vin Wine Saver
You are ready to open 5 or 6 different bottles for your holiday dinner, and this is great, a good wine pairing with each dish is better than on single wine for the whole meal. But maybe, you’ll have leftovers (food for sure, wine probably not… but hey you never know: so just in case, don’t waste it and use this little tool, to vacuum out the air inside the bottle and protect it from oxidation.
On Amazon
A Wine Thermometer
If you are a wine lover you are probably very conscious about serving your wine at the right temperature, right? Indeed, serving a wine too cold would blind the aromas too much while serving it to warm would enhance the alcoholic feeling with no pleasure in the tasting.
There are many different options out there for wine thermometers, but I highly recommend one with a stick going into the wine rather than the one you stick on the bottle as it will be more accurate. The one from l’Atelier du Vin is nicely graduated and easy to use.
A Wine Chiller
If you don’t have space (or money to afford it) for a wine cellar unit, you can always use a countertop wine chiller. They are very efficient, easy to use, fast (3 to 5 minutes to cool down a bottle of wine) and a great Xmas gift for that special someone – again no judgments if that someone is you. We all deserve to be spoiled.
Found this model on a French site
And on an American site
The Coravin: For hardcore wine lovers only
The Coravin, is a quite new tool, using the technology of the by the glass cellar, which means, replacing the air inside the bottle with an inert gas. But additionally, it allows you by inserting a needle inside the bottle, to pour the wine into your glass without removing the cork; so if you have a wine cellar, you can easily taste your wine after and make sure it is ok to drink without opening and wasting a bottle – Listen I said it was hardcore.
It is quite expensive, around 300€ in France at least but very useful if you want to taste your wine year after year.
Find it on Amazon.
Stone cubes
After a great meal, you may be inclined to enjoy a glass of favorite digestive: cognac, Armagnac, whiskey or rhum…. But please never add ice cubes to it… you like it a bit chilled, like me, then get those rock stones, place them in the freezer and just drop one or two in your glass…. You’ll get the temperature you like without altering the flavor of the product.
A book about wine
It is not just the enjoyment of drinking good or great wine that pushes some of us wine lovers. It is also the discovery of the producers, the language or wine, the terroir and a bunch of other snazzy terms that will make you sound like a wine aficionado at your next dinner party.
Here are a few suggestions from us sommeliers (thank you Preston – Paris by the Glass for the English suggestions).
My pick (if you read French): Du Pain, Du Vin – A book about wine, products from the beautiful terroir of Corsica, written by an old colleague of mine… great wine selection, information about an authentic island and more.
Wine a Tasting Course: Every Class in a Glass by Marnie Old – Demystify wine with this ultimate visual course for wine lovers. The Amazon description does it better justice.
Wine: A Life Uncorked by Hugh Johnson – An autobiographical tour from the preeminent wine writer of our time, through the world of wine
Bonus Gift idea: Gift them (or yourself) the gift of wine education and discovery by joining one of our culinary tours in France and Spain. Spend a week with our chef cooking, tasting, and exploring. Our tours include a very important wine exploration day taking you (depending on the tour), through Champagne, France’s largest wine-producing region, and the sherry producers of Spain. Discover our culinary tours and cooking workshops.
