Father’s Day is almost here. If you’re like me you’ve procrastinated, mainly because Dads can be hard to buy for. But if your father loves wine, here are five gift ideas he’s sure to enjoy.
Wine Aerator – Does Dad like red wine? There are many aerator devices on the market now. They quickly get more air into the wine to help soften tannins or bring out more of the aromas and flavors. Read more
Happy new year! Like me, I’m sure you are recovering from the holiday 2010 season, and trying to get back into the swing of things. This post is a bit overdue, but I just had to share my most favorite holiday gift. It is from my brother, and he wanted to be on the phone when I opened it. Voila, the coolest shoe ever. It’s a shoe wine bottle holder – a total wine fashionista must! Gotta love the leopard print and the rhinestone embellishment. I can’t believe I’ve never seen this; my brother gets major kudos for finding it!
wine tasting kits The winery tasting room. Let’s face it. Often crowded, it’s not always the ideal spot to taste wine. But if you want to try a range of said winery’s offerings, the tasting room has been the place to go. Until now. You can have the tasting room come to you. TastingRoom has created wine tasting kits with four or six little bottles, each holding 50 ml (that’s 1.7 oz). This is the size of most small perfume bottles, and I say that because these kits remind me of perfume samples. You can get fragrance samples sent to you, and can try and buy perfume without ever leaving home. A terrific online fragrance store is Luckyscent. You can order a sample vial of any perfume on their website. Once you get it and try it and like it, you can order a bottle. If not, you’re out about…
Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Most of us will wait ’till the last minute. Thought a few more wine gift ideas would be helpful. The hottest wine accessory, gadget…Vinturi. It is a wine aerator that you use while pouring a glass of wine. That means it acts like a mini decanter – it gets air into the wine and opens up bouquet and flavors. It is a two-handed operation. Uncork the wine, hold the Vinturi over the glass and pour. You’ll hear a sucking sound — that’s the wine being aerated. Best for red wines, but can be used for white wines too. I’ve seen wineries use it in their tasting rooms so what you taste is the true wine.Comes with rubber stand and a travel pouch and retails for about $30. You can usually find this at a wine shop, or you can order online. I did my…
What to get the wine lover in your life who has everything? Here’s a gadget (we all know how wine geeks love their toys!) Nuvo Vino is an infrared thermometer you use to check your wine’s serving temp. Super easy to use, you push the top button down and the other end opens up to reveal the thermometer. You don’t dunk this in the wine. Instead the infrared collects the surface temp. In my homegrown experiment, I had a white wine I wanted to open. In the bottle the unchilled wine temp was 74 degrees Fareheght. A little too warm to drink in my opinion. After chilling in ice for about 25 minutes, the wine poured into a glass was at 49.5 degrees. That’s in the optimal range of serving temps for this wine, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. After sitting in the glass for about…