I would imagine most every one has struggled with this question.
I thought if I asked the W.B. members I would get some really valuable feedback to improve my process.
Because of my love and passion for wines, I frequently find myself in the position of needing to select wines
to give as gifts.
It can be quite complicated - I start by wanting to know does the person have favorites?
If the person is in a couple, then there is a 2nd person to be considered.
Financial factors can really complicate matters. It does happen that someone is trading gifts with us,
and a either that they have been purchasing wines for many decades - so they were on the list for a 20 year old Harlan,
to bring to dinner, it was a 100 pt vintage that was so special it really blew me away.
Or 20, or 30 years back such and such wine was not that expensive - now - how do I reciprocate?
Or the husband like Red Grapes and the wife likes white?
Often the people have limited knowledge or experience and I do not want to burden them with so many questions
which some times make people uncomfortable.
My goal is frequently just to share the love & joy I have for fine wine and that they say they’ve had similar experiences.
(Is there a business app in there for someone?)
If possible I do try to ask a few questions about the rec
I’ve someone we are regularly recommending wines - as they’ve requested - but they do not want to be burdened to give me any feedback.
William if giving to a Berserker that would be easy but general wine drinker I would give either a Ridge wine or a Syrah from Walla Walla. I have been amazed at the quality of wines from the Rocks district which is technically in Oregon.
I’ve found wines that are most appreciated are ones that show some thought into the selection and an interesting story about the wine, whether it’s a multiple 100 pointer, female owner and female winemaker, old vines, etc.
When buying for a fellow collector, I will select something I know they specifically like.
For more general gifts to non-collectors, I am typically buying in bulk for many people and spending less than $50 per bottle. As I am not a daily wine drinker and have not worked in retail since college days, this is an area I am not terribly up to date on.
And so I generally make a choice based on importer. While I did also buy some of the higher wines for cellaring, the one thing I really loved about the Robert Kacher portfolio when it was still around is that I could pick just about any entry level burgundy (or Domaine de Pouy sometimes) and it would be universally appreciated with plenty of direct feedback. He really had a talent for finding highly desirable entry level burgundies.
Now that wine is not quite the exotic gift it once way, I honestly rarely gift it. These days I generally go with gourmet dessert items from small producers. But when I go looking for wine as a general gift- I will usually look for those same bottles that Kacher used to represent, or go with one of a few importers I trust today to select really good entry level wines.
William,
What if all you had to do was send a link to the person to whom you wanted to give the gift? Then they clicked through, selected the wine they preferred (from a set of choices approved by you to fit your budget) entered their information and the rest was taken care of? At PROJECT M we have built out this service. It can be used for holiday gifts or year round for those occasional reminders of how important someone is to you. We do this for personal gifting giving as well as business gift giving. Not sure what etiquette here is on inserting links so I will refrain from doing so. We are easy to find and would love to make this very easy for you.
I am not William, but I must tell you I think that is an awesome idea.
One suggestion/question if I may if it is not already part of your setup- for those of us who are really picky gift-givers, is there the option to see the selection available at the time of purchase within the range given (with the understanding that the selection could change depending on how long the person took to redeem the certificate) or an option to make specific recommendations such that the recipient could see things the giver especially recommend among the selection they have to choose from? (again with the qualifier that any recommendations no longer available when the recipient redeems would not be shown.)
I don’t think you need to overthink this. If you know the person and what they cellar, give them something they don’t have.
If the person is learning and wants a ‘push’, upgrade them to something that might be a station higher than what they already drink.
To the slovenly masses, a simple wine they can glug down.
I like that idea. I received a Gustiamo newsletter a few days ago describing “Santomiele figs dried in the sun for about 10 days during summer and then splashed with fig molasses + rum to give them extra moisture. Finally, they join raisins, candied orange peel, and crunchy almonds in a fig leaf wrap to create a lavish explosion of aromas.” I looked at the price, something like 30 or 40 bucks, and thought no I am not going to pay that for a few figs for myself, but man that would make a neat foodie gift .
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