On the first day of Christmas, WineBoy gave to me: one Umberto Lupini … Actually in the latest episode of the five-minute webcast, The Marcrazi Lupini opens the show and introduces host John Brown, who regales us with several non-wine suggestions for holiday gift giving.

Our spirited host also recommends a wine to please even the most bah-humbugger among us. Get some good information and have a little fun — tune in to episode 19.

RELATED: See “Beers to Us” blogger Rich Ireland’s beer-centric gift ideas. 

As the holiday season approaches, I would like to suggest a semantic change to the old adage “It’s better to give than receive.” Let’s deleting the word “than” and insert the word “and.” In other words, it’s better to both give and receive – in this instance, to receive a nice bottle of wine or special wine-related gift- to celebrate the upcoming holiday festivities. Depending upon your budget, the sky is virtually the limit when it comes to finding a wine to give (or receive from) that special person. Securing a quality selection of top wines for holiday gift giving is a labor of love and over the next few weeks, I’ll share my top picks for this holiday season.

Today, though, I’ll provide a listing of some of my favorite non-wine gifts along with a couple of vinous goodies that would make a wine lover very happy. (note to my friends: please feel free to pass this along to my wife) So, before I get to the wine recommendations, here are a few of my favorite wine-related gift ideas for you to consider.

I’ve noted it several times before, but the absolutely best wine reference book is the “World Atlas of Wine” by Hugh Johnson. It is a compendium of everything you need to know about wine, including information on specific wines and regions. Check for it at your local bookshop or online at Amazon or Borders. This is a coffee table book that finds its way to my office when I need to find out some arcane tidbit about anything to do with wine. This book retails in the $30 to $35 range.
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The Wine Shop at Capitol Market recently held their annual Claret tasting. Claret is a term the British have used for centuries to describe the red wines of Bordeaux. And while this Claret tasting usually features a Bordeaux wine or two, it is also expanded to include cabernet-based wines from around the world. The neat thing about this tasting is that the wines are tasted blind. Now, I know what some of you reprobates are thinking, but no — this is not a wine-chugging contest where the object is to achieve a state of blindness.

This is a tasting where the bottles are put in paper bags so the labels are not visible and so tasters can evaluate them objectively and not be unduly influenced by “pedigree” or price. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the tasting, but the results are published below by the Wine Shop’s Ted Armbrecht (who, I might add, has an excellent palate.) The tasting was conducted by expert taster Andy MacQueen, who was featured on last week’s WineBoy webcast.

Ted’s descriptions of the wines and their attributes reflect the comments of tasters who rated each of the wines. I hope this provides you with another tool when shopping for that special gift this coming holiday season. (more…)

See the companion post at Rich Ireland’s ‘Beers To You’ blog on adding the right kinds of beer to a Thanksgiving feast.

For many of us, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are fowl affairs because the turkey will once again be the centerpiece of these traditional holiday feasts. Thanksgiving is also the beginning of the 40-day holiday season, which includes Chanukah and Christmas, culminating with the New Year’s celebration.

It is also a time of year when you will spend about 70 percent of your yearly wine budget, purchasing bottles for parties, gifts and holiday dinners. For me, it’s the most exciting time of the year. I’m like a kid in a candy store! The shelves of local wine shops are overflowing with bottles of every type and pedigree.

Turkey will once again be the featured main course for Thanksgiving and Christmas in my house. In year’s past, I have written about the culinary versatility of turkey which can be successfully paired with red or white (as well as light or full-bodied) wines. The reason is that the bird is blessed with meat that has a variety of flavors, colors and textures, which present opportunities for us to try a lot of different wines. (more…)

I must take issue with my friends Tara and Rob who, in a recent “Main Ingredient” column for the Sunday Gazette-Mail, suggested there is a double standard at play when it comes to wines for drinking and wines for cooking:

“If we’re going to pay a lot for a bottle of bliss that’s been coaxed to perfection by some grape guru, the last thing we want to do is watch as medium-high heat scrambles its molecules,” they state in the November 4,” Main Ingredient .”
In other words, they seem to be saying, it’s not worth wasting good wine to flavor a dish. And, you don’t have to like a wine to cook with it.
Believe me when I say I applaud anyone who can find good, bargain-priced wine for any use. As a matter of fact, my wine mission in life is to locate wines that meet those criteria. But why would you want to cook with a wine (cheap or expensive) that you wouldn’t want to drink?

And I really must take exception to this statement: “Any dry white of your choosing will keep for at least a month in the fridge, giving you the flexibility to deglaze at a moment’s notice.” (more…)

ED. NOTE: We’ve got a blogfecta (blog + trifecata) of posts on the dining/drinking experience. After reading this one, check out Rich Ireland’s “Beers To You” post on how restaurants routinely ruin good beers. And food blogger Brooke Brown weighs in with a plaintive cry about servers manhandling the glassware.

Over the years, I’ve sipped wine from a variety of vessels, some of which, I must admit, were not exactly made of fine crystal. In fact, in my younger days, I occasionally drank the stuff from coffee cups, beer mugs, plastic containers, water glasses, wine skins, canteens and even (I’m reluctant to admit) from the jug…er bottle.

Like many males of my generation, I also spent a considerable amount of time back then in a ‘ 57 Chevy, a fraternity house and a foxhole. Consequently, many of the finer elements of wine appreciation, such as selecting the appropriate stemware, were subordinated to more mundane, yet practical considerations such as finding a couple of dollars to buy a jug of Lake Country Red.

Even today, I’ll take a sip from a paper cup if I forget to bring my glassware to the picnic or tailgate. But there really is no substitute for using clear glass stemware (preferably crystal) to showcase and enjoy your wine
Why? Well, first of all, there is the aesthetically pleasing quality of using fine stemware. One of the elements of wine appreciation which is often overlooked is the visual aspect. Remember that the first “S” of wine appreciation is sight? Being able to assess the true color of wine, its shades and hues, can only be critically observed and enjoyed when the liquid is displayed in clear glassware. (more…)