In vino veritas

We’re starting off our Food Gifting marathon with wine. Now we don’t claim to be wine experts by any stretch of the imagination –- Wendi doesn’t drink wine and K2’s more a “ooh, look a pretty bottle” connoisseur –- so actual recommendations we’ll leave to the experts, BUT we will give you ideas on how to make a Wow presentation with your gift!

We look at wine gifting as a chance to expose friends to new wines that they might not have chosen for themselves otherwise. So, to that end, our rule of thumb is that if you don’t know how it tastes, go with how it looks. (If you’re not that brave and want your wine-drinking friends to ask you back, we would suggest asking someone who knows.)

“Simply” Elegant

If you want a near-to-no brainer gift, pick out your wine gift bag first then find a wine to match it! There are so many cool labels and bottle shapes out there that it should be easy to do. It’s subtle, but if you find a bag, bottle, and tissue that has a theme it’s going to make your gift look well put-together and it will register on some level that this is more than just a grab-and-go gift.





A Little Something Extra

Don’t send your wine out on its own! Add a little something extra to tag along with it -- like chocolate, a nice corkscrew, fancy nuts, or some cute coasters. There are lots of little things you can find that will make a nice companion for your vino. Check out the dollar bins at your local craft store or hit a dollar store to see what you can find.





A Trisket A Trasket

Gift baskets are fun to put together, though honestly it’s not always the less expensive route to go. But when cost is not really an issue, what we like about doing it ourselves is that it can be personalized to suit your "giftee's" tastes or used as an opportunity to show off your artistic and/or culinary talents.

This basket has two half-bottles of wine, three sample-size cheeses and a variety of homemade crackers – cracked pepper, sesame, and plain. With smaller items you can get a wider variety of goodies in it. You may already have a favorite cracker recipe, but if not, this is the one we use and just add our own spice variety to it, http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/07/rec0708.html.




For more of a splash, we picked a red color scheme for this festive bucket. The shiny star spray and red fill (both from the Dollar Store) picks up the shininess of the metal bucket. Then for the gift we have a bottle of red, some fancy crackers, a wheel of brie and a matching red bottle opener (sorry not really visible, see "stuff" photo above).



The Right Stuff

For baskets, buckets, and other containers, we recommend you check not only craft stores, but hardware stores or shops like Ross or TJ Maxx where you can find unusual items at discount prices. Thrift shops is another place to find baskets or unusual containers. Fills, bows, and funky ribbons can be found inexpensively at dollar stores, fabric shops, or craft shops.

Most grocery stores these days have a pretty decent selection of wines and there are any number of wine warehouses around too, but if you’re in the market for great wine at great prices you should check out the smaller specialty stores. In fact, we have a family & friend favorite to recommend for those of you who are local, Wine Authorities in Durham (check out our “Check It Out” post for their web link).

We hope this will give you some things to think about and get those creative juices flowing!