A Perfect Wine & Chocolate Pairing
Everyone loves getting fed. You could whip up a three-course meal, but that’s not a quick gift. If you want all the glory without all the work, ditch the first two courses and jump right to dessert. Throw in some great wine, and you will be a gift-giving rockstar.
Cabernet and White Chocolate
White Chocolate is a fantastic foil to Cabernet Sauvignon, especially bottles from Paso Robles. Another favorite at the Wine School is Banyuls (the French dessert wine) with Chocolate truffles.
Brachetto d’Aqui and Belgian Chocolate
Here’s a sommelier secret: Brachetto d’Aqui is pretty much the best wine for all chocolate pairings. It’s a fizzy, frothy red wine with a dollop of residual sugar. Chocolate-covered bacon? Brachetto d’Aqui! Flourless chocolate torte? Brachetto d’Aqui! Cake? Brachetto d’Aqui!
An Awesome Bottle of Red Wine
There are a few wines that every wine lover appreciates getting. Even if you don’t know much about wine, I can lead you to a great bottle. The trick is to focus on the two things that matter: price & wine region.
For around $100, look for a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Spring Mountain, Atlas Peak, or Howell Mountain. All three are wine regions in Napa Valley, and you can’t go wrong with any of them. For the $50 price range, seek out a bottle from France’s Chateauneuf du Pape. They are world-class wines packaged in ornate bottles. For $25, seek out a Rioja from Spain. Rioja offers up some of the world’s greatest wines at surprisingly affordable prices.
A Wine Class
No surprise here. A gift certificate from the East Coast’s premier wine school is always a smart choice. Learning about wine from a master-level sommelier or a winemaker is a great way to spend an evening.
As a last-minute wine gift, our gift certificates are ideal. We will electronically send you the gift card within seconds of your order. You can print out the gift or have it sent directly to the giftee via email. No-fuss, no muss, and our gift certificates never expire.
Tongue in Cheek Wine Gifts
I went looking for some fun wine gifts, and I got more than I bargained for. There were dozens of Wine O’Clock Slippers on Amazon to choose from. Who knew there was such a huge demand for boozing slippers? If you know someone who can’t be bothered to put on actual shoes before drinking, this is your lucky day.
Perhaps a book?
Our readers tend to be a bit more sophisticated, so I’ll suggest a book over slippers. Two well-written –and hilarious– books on our shortlist are Whine: 50 Perfect Wines to Pair with Your Child’s Rotten Behavior
and Moms Who Drink and Swear: True Tales of Loving My Kids While Losing My Mind
. Both are great reads.
The WineRack?
If you thought those slippers weren’t tacky enough, I have something for you. It is perhaps the worst possible gift in the history of awful gifts. And that includes the time you gifted your mom a bottle of laundry detergent.
Let’s start with a few choice reviews for this product:
“Don’t sneak it into Fenway Park. You will get kicked out.”
“My friend and I always joked about getting this so we’re not judged drinking wine at the park watching the kids.”
“The shape of the flask “cups” are not at all believable as breasts.”
“We had the best time ever with this bra on a couple nights out but before the night was over the vodka tasted like plastic!”
“The added advantage of keeping the girls cool in this god awful Texas heat.”
“I ended up making my boyfriend wear it because it didn’t fit on me when full.”
Those are real reviews for a product named the WineRack 
Don’t worry, there is an equally offensive BeerBelly
if that’s more your speed. Unless your mom really digs off-color gifts that smack of latent alcoholism, don’t go here. But if you do, let me know how that works out for you. I’d especially like to see the photos of your black eye.
