Drinking Wines

As a housewarming gift, or holiday offering, wine gift baskets make a great gift. There?s so much more to wine consumption than a bottle of wine resting in a basket of raffia, however. Spice up your wine gift baskets with some nifty additions that will wow your recipient, and feed your creativity.

Choosing a bottle of wine for your wine gift baskets can be overwhelming. A good rule of thumb is to choose a bottle of wine that you enjoy. If you are not a wine lover, choose a wine that is bottled locally or in an area nearby for your wine gift basket. Supporting local growers is always appreciated. You may want to consider the season and pick your wine for your wine gift basket accordingly.

Consider including wine glasses in wine gift baskets. There are some who believe certain wines should be paired with certain types of glasses, but for a typical wine drinker, the standard is a clear, crystal glass. A matching set of four may serve as a nice set, but for a more intimate wine gift basket, include two glasses, suggesting the bottle be shared by a couple.

Dress up your glasses in your wine gift baskets with wine charms. These charms, placed at the base of the stem, not only dress up your glasses, (and your wine gift baskets), but also serve as a way of labeling which glass belongs to who. Have fun when building wine gift baskets, and pick charms that will add fun and flair to the wine gift baskets you are delivering.

While cheese is probably not the best option to put into a wine gift basket, chocolate is. Although there are cheeses that have been preserved and do not require refrigeration, they are not exactly the picture of class and certainly will not flow with the class your wine gift baskets will exude. Chocolate is an old friend of wine, and they compliment each other nicely. Select exotic, gourmet chocolates for your wine gift baskets, and don?t be afraid to splurge. A little bit of fabulous chocolate goes a long way, so go for it! Wine gift baskets are an elegant gift, and are deserving of the ?good stuff?.

Have fun creating your wine gift baskets. Wrap them in quality materials, and adorn them with colorful, striking bows. Deliver your wine gift basket with love, and take pride in sharing carefully selected items with those you love.

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We’ve all heard that there are rules to selecting the right wine. Those rules are based on the type of meat or fish main course, cost, the snootiness factor and other less savory snobbery. Heck, I’m no snob when selecting just that right wine to go with my meal. I have 1 rule that fits no matter what’s on the menu. But before I give you Franks rule of wine selection, let’s review a few of the more recognized rules.

Red with meat, white with fish. Yea, this is a good direction to take all right. It’s good if you like your meals color coordinated. Heck, I’m satisfied if my husband is color coordinated and don’t really care if my meals are on a specific color spectrum.

Price determines quality. OK, I made this one up after having a wine steward get almost indignant at my wine selection because it didn’t have the nose of a truly good wine. A nose of course is what’s on people’s faces that they look down on us less sophisticated wine connoisseurs. Apparently wine also has a nose and it simply means the way it smells. The difference between us and them however is that we say smell and they say bouquet. Well la tee-da.

How about using the Sommelier of the restaurant to select your wine? If you get one with a sense of humor, this is an excellent way to find new wines to enjoy. A Sommelier is someone who is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional. They understand all the aging, grape selection, part of the country and wine making techniques that basic wine drinkers like myself just aren’t interested in studying about. A great sommelier will not focus on price but on what types of wine you enjoy. What you’re eating will be considered but actually, a good Sommelier is looking to select a wine based on my 1 rule of wine selection.

That 1 rule of wine selection trumps everything else in picking a wine drink. That number 1 rule is …

GET SOMETHING YOU LIKE AND ENJOY!

That’s it! Who cares if it’s expensive except the restaurant that gets the huge mark-up price. You’re going to drink it and if the wine is something you’ve enjoyed before or at a previous special occasion, you will start to reminisce. You will begin to walk down memory lane and if that special someone you’re dining with happens to be your lifes partner of many years, they too will begin to remember back when. The romance is rekindled not by the wine but by the memories.

There is a certain magic to a wine that can be tied back into your own personal history. So what kind of wine goes with my chicken salad sandwich? I’ll take the one I like…the one with the magic.

Abigail Frank writes on many subjects having to do with home, and Business. For more information on wine and wine accessories visit the site at http://www.wine.primo-living.com