Just in time for the beginning of the holiday shopping season (but if you think the Wine Curmudgeon is going to be in a store at 4 a.m. today, then you haven’t been paying attention).
• Cheap, well-made red and white wine to have on hand when people show up unexpectedly: Two long-time favorites – the Avalon Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($15) and Tortoise Creek Chardonnay/Viognier ($9). The former will please even non-cabernet drinkers, and the latter is a welcome change from chardonnay.
• A regional wine, because you should give regional wine: Becker Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Newsom Vineyard ($25). Texas cabernet sauvignon can be problematic, since it doesn’t get cold enough here to make consistently great wine. But this is close, with dark fruit and a certain French-like style.
• White burgundy, because who doesn’t like white Burgundy? Joseph Drouhin St. Veran ($18). This Macon is quite impressive -- lots of acid and no oak, which makes a bright and crisp wine.
• Quality wine with a clever label: Layer Cake Malbec ($16). It has a picture of a chocolate cake on the label, and it’s much more complex than other, similarly-priced malbecs. It even has what the French call a bacon fat aroma.
• Wine for the boss: Chateau Lassègue ($44). This cabernet blend from Bordeaux’s left bank offers much of what Bordeaux is famous for, like elegance and long tannins, at half the price.
• Inexpensive sauvignon blanc, because the Wine Curmudgeon likes sauvignon blanc: Lockwood Sauvignon Blanc ($10). A fine wine in a year that saw much fine inexpensive California sauvignon blanc.
• Quality wine that doesn’t have a cork: Hey Mambo Sultry Red ($12). This California red blend is made with six grapes, half of which most people haven’t heard of. It also has a closure called a Zork, which can best be described as a screw top made of something like rubber.
• The Champagne gift: Pommery gift set – a bottle of bubbly and two glasses ($42). This is classy French sparkling wine from a top producer. Throw in the glasses, it’s quite a deal.
• A wine board game, believe it or not: Bouquet, the Wine Game ($45). Trivial Pursuit meets Monopoly for wine buffs, with three levels of difficulty. This is the gift to stump the wine snob on your list.
• Because you can never have too many wine openers: Cork Pops Cork Popper ($24). The Cork Popper shoots a CO2 through the cork and into the bottle, so that the cork pops up from the bottom.
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