Wine Gifts- Holiday Shopping Suggestions

The holidays are upon you and it is time to come up with some creative gifts. Sigh. Trying to find creative gifts for a friend or loved one is a tad trying. The good news is it can be easier if you are buying for a person who enjoys wine. Since that is practically everyone, wine gifts make sense.

Oxygen is the enemy of wine. When exposed to it over time, most wines will go bad. That being said, wine is excellent when it is exposed to oxygen for a short amount of time...say five minutes or so. This brings us to our first gift - the decanter.

You see the same scene in the movies all the time. Someone opens a bottle of wine and then lets it breathe. This is somewhat humorous because an opened bottle of wine does not breathe. The small amount of wine exposed to the air at the vary top of the bottle is simply insufficient to do the job. A decanter does a far better job.

Technically, a decanter is any container that exposes wine to the air. This means a pitcher that you might use for juice would do the trick. In the world of wine, decanters are more often glass. They look a bit like something out of the imagination of Salvador Dali. They often appear to be glass pitchers that have melted onto one side. There is a reason for this. By "falling over", they create a larger surface area within their walls. When wine is added, more of it is exposed to the air, which causes it to evolve both faster and more consistently. These are good things!

Wine journals are another good gift for the wine lovers in your life. A good wine journal is a flip up affair. The top page contains a space where the wine lover can paste the labels from the bottles they've tried. The lower sheet then contains space for their impressions. It should also include suggestive questions to remind them to cover basic aspects of the wine. Wine journals are inexpensive gifts and huge hits with wine lovers.

The third wine gift to consider is the wine of the month club. There are many of these clubs, but they all work in the same general way. As the name suggests, wine is sent to the recipient every month. The monthly shipment usually consists of at least a couple of bottles. All are unique. It is a great way to sample new wines from vineyards and areas of the world that most wine lovers would never experience.

It is pretty hard to go wrong when it comes to finding gifts for a wine lover. Any of the above will do nicely. As for other subjects like clothes, you are entirely on your own!

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