Message in a Bottle

Basket case: Vinomania’s
Gary Decker and Something Different Gift Shoppe owner Michele Hicks
work together to create festive gift baskets that are too nice to give
away. Buy one for
your friend and yourself. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

Wine is moving beyond just a bottle
brought to a holiday soiree as a thoughtful gift for the host or
hostess. It's now possible to find wine-related gifts for friends,
family members, fellow workers, clients—virtually every adult on your
holiday gift list.

And there are so many great ideas to choose from. A
top-of-the line Rabbit corkscrew, for instance, will make opening wine
bottles a simple and speedy experience for those hard-to-open bottles.
Or how about a Riedel wine glass set? Do you know someone who can never
put her hands on a matched set of wine glasses when she needs it?
Consider giving a set of four, or even eight, glasses to make
entertaining a style statement. And mix it up with a set of glasses
shaped for each type of wine. 

Wine makes a great gift because it's not
something that will be put away and forgotten after the season is over.
It will be savored and enjoyed by both the wine novice and wine
aficionado from the time the bottle is opened until the last drop is
gone. 

“Wine is one of the best things to give
because it’s easy to make a choice,” says Gary Decker, owner of
Vinomania, in Nettleton Commons Building on Pearl Street (422-8466).
“If someone is a wine nut, it’s easy for customers to ask me to make a
suggestion. A lot of it is based on price, too. You can do it for $8 or
you can do it for $50. You end up giving them something unique and
that’s what a wine person wants: something a little different.”

As for what is trendy this year, Decker
has a few suggestions. “With white wines, there are a lot of new and
different things. There’s a Torrontes from Argentina {this varietal
even has its own Web site, www.torrontes.com}. It has more of a flowery
nose, it’s different. If you had a friend who likes fish and you tried
a different fish that you really liked, you’d want to suggest it to
them. It would be very exciting to them to discover this new wine.
Likewise, while Chardonnay is a huge seller, I’d rather show a White
Rhone from California.

“Champagne is hot this time of year, but
some of the big reds are even hotter,” Decker continues. “The Carmenere
grape from Chile is really good. It tastes like a Cabernet with a
blackberry finish; it’s rich and good and costs $10 to $30 a bottle.
Malbec, a medium- to full-bodied red wine, has been good for a while.
It’s a French grape that’s grown in Argentina. As the public gets more
wine-savvy, their palate gets deeper. They’re not starting out with
sweet wines anymore; they’re moving more to deep reds right away.”

{mospagebreak} 

If the wine lover on your shopping list
is really after those collectible, award-winning bottles, think about a
wine club membership as a gift. That way he’ll have something to look
forward to not just this holiday season, but throughout the year. And
membership comes with rewards. 

Let’s peruse the benefits offered by
Gold Medal Wine Club (www.gold medalwine.com), which specializes in
delivering hard-to-find wines from small, family-owned California
wineries to people all across the country. Buy a one-month Gold Series
Membership for $34 (one- to 12-month gifts are available), and your
giftee will get two highly rated bottles of wine (one red, one white)
neatly gift-wrapped in tissue and perfectly tied bows around each
bottleneck. They'll also receive The Wine Press, a fun,
informative color publication that features details about the wines,
the fascinating backgrounds of the winery owners, a behind-the-scenes
tour of the vineyards and great food-pairing ideas from the winemakers
themselves. 

If the wine enthusiast on your list has always dreamed of
expanding his horizons with a trip overseas but just couldn't find the
time or resources to do it, a great surprise would be a Gold Medal Wine
Club International Series membership. Imagine his delight when a box
arrives containing three bottles of rare and wonderful international
wines packaged with a collection of delicious gourmet food items direct
from the featured country. The full-color Taste the Adventure
publication includes facts about the wines, winery and country. Each
shipment is around $100 and annual gifts (four deliveries per year)
receive a 10 percent discount. 

All of the wines offered by Gold Medal
Wine Club are hard-to-find, small-production wines from boutique family
wineries. The wines have won multiple medals and awards from major wine
competitions and have high ratings from the major wine publications.
Some wines are even pre-releases and exclusives that are only offered
at the winery itself and through the club. 

Take care of your gift orders early by
logging on to www.goldmedalwine.com/gifts or calling (800) 266-8888 and
your gift will surely arrive in time for the holiday.

Or if you don’t want your gift to be so
over-the-top, try a gift basket that pairs wine from Decker’s quaint
shop with accessories and food from Something Different Gift Shoppe,
3200 Court St. (432-0713). Proprietor Michele Hicks explains that state
laws prohibit her from selling the wine without a liquor license and
prohibit Decker from combining wine with food. 

“So it’s a collaboration that works well
for the customer who wants something we can’t offer individually,” she
notes. “If someone comes into my shop wanting a wine basket, I will
refer them to Gary or I will place the order with Gary and then I’ll
put the basket together.” Either Decker will drop the wine by the gift
shop or Hicks will take the basket to Little Italy.

Examples of some gift baskets Hicks has
assembled range from wine only or wine with cheese, crackers, wine
biscuits, gourmet chocolates, pretzels and dipping mustard. “Things
that complement the wine,” Hicks says. “It’s important for us to make
sure we give the customer what they want. We strive to make it
something the recipient will want in the end.”

And while holidays are the busiest time
for both proprietors, wine and gift baskets are appropriate gifts
anytime of the year. Cheers!

—Courtesy of ARAcontent