Holiday Wines 101: And Perils of the Wine Re-gifter

There are many tasty wines out there for almost every budget. I’ve suggested some of my favorite party wines for under $10 (see adjacent list). Some of these wines will be familiar, but hopefully you’ll discover some new ones to enjoy year-round.

Selecting a wine to bring to a party

There are a few common-sense things to think about when you select and give a bottle of wine to your hosts. First, consider the event: is it a ya’ll come or an intimate dinner with close friends? Even if you have a fat wallet it’s not a great idea to bring a costly trophy wine to a mob of folks. Even if everyone there appreciates fine wines, dividing it up for a dozen or more guests doesn’t make much sense.

If it’s an intimate dinner with a handful of friends who enjoy wine, then offering your host a more expensive wine would be good. In this case it’s not inappropriate to call your host and ask about a wine that would go with the dinner party.

If you do bring a special wine — a wine with a story behind it, maybe from a recent trip to wine country, be sure to let your host know. Many times the hosts are so overwhelmed introducing everyone they miss your wine-giving efforts and just plant it next to the other wines.

At least if it isn’t opened that night, your host will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

And even at a nice dinner party there’s nothing wrong with bringing a “wine find” — a nice wine you’ve discovered at a great price. Everyone loves a wine bargain, even fine wine collectors. Not many of us can afford trophy wines as our everyday wine.

For parties, try to select wines that would taste good to most of the guests. Stay away from wines that need to be cellared or are too extreme in either tannins or oak. And don’t select wines because of their cute labels. Although at a party several years ago TV anchor Michael Tuck brought me a Fat Bastard wine that amused both of us and tasted pretty good.

Almost any quaffable wine is fine for gifting. Zinfandels, merlots and pinot noirs are all great party reds. Rosés are popular any time of the year and are very festive, and non-oaked or lightly-oaked chardonnays, viognier (vee-yohn-yay), pinot grigio and sauvignon blancs are nice white wines for the holiday masses.

And then there are the re-gifters out there. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with re-gifting a wine if you know it’s in good shape and suitable for a party wine. But wine re-gifting is not the same as re-gifting cheap tchotchkes at the office party. Wine is perishable and suffers from mishandling — folks just don’t take very good care of potential re-gifted wines. And usually they don’t put their name on the gift bag either.

Some re-gifted wines have lives of their own. For example, suppose that you take a re-gifted wine to Fred’s party that you unknowingly got at your last party from Fred who had re-gifted it to you from a wine Susan re-gifted to him two years ago. And Susan is at Fred’s party too. You see where all this can go … It can get pretty ugly.

Cheers!

Ron James is a wine and food columnist and radio host whose columns and features have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country.