Four Gift Ideas for a Wine Guy

With Christmas around the corner it can be tough finding the right gift for each type of person. Some people are car lovers and there are gift guides for them, others are gadget lovers and you won’t need to leave leave EFTM for that. And some people just enjoy wine and you don’t need to spend a lot of money to please them, but you can.

For the clumsy; MightyMug Wine Set

Don’t cry over spilled wine again, these wine glasses have some innovative tech at the bottom of the glass that create suction. That suction is enough to save it from an accidental knock but it won’t stop you from lifting the glass, when there is lift vertically, there is no feeling of suction at all, it’s a bit of magic really.

Available for $31 here

For the novice; This is Not a Wine Guide

Many people just enjoy wine and some like to really know why they enjoy it as well as how the experience with wine can get better. This book by an Australian sommelier named Chris Morrison helps readers to develop the confidence to choose, purchase, serve, share and ultimately even collect wine without feeling the need to rely on the ‘old rules’ involving notes, scores, jargon and reviews. We’ve been reading this ourselves and we’re really enjoying the writing style and simplicity of it all. Chris has a real talent for teaching you a lot about wine without making it feel like you’re hearing it from a wine snob.

Available for $25 here

For the “wine-dad”; The Last Letter

If your dad or father in-law loves a bit of wine and impressing him with a bottle is a tough one, this one from St. Hugo will do the trick on an emotive and taste level. Firstly, there is a story behind the name and it’s a bit of a tear jerker. In 1938 there was a tragic plane crash which saw the death of three major winemakers, one of which was Hugo Gramps. The days before that flight Hugo sent a letter to his son who was in boarding school in Adelaide. His son went into the common area in the evening where the news was playing, which is where he heard the news of his father’s passing. The next day, the letter arrived. From a flavour perspective, it’s a cabernet sauvignon from the Barossa Valley. Take a sip and you’ll experience some ripe fruit flavours with some dark chocolate yet some strong tannins. This is a good thing and will see it age very well.

Available for $65 here

For the Wino with Gadgets: The Breville Sommelier

This product has been sitting in our kitchen for a little while now and has been really changing the wine experience. Decanting a wine is a standard affair for most wine lovers, it allows the wine to breathe, the grow and evolve before consumption. The problem with decanting a wine is the waiting… usually over an hour for most wines. That can be a long time if it is the second bottle of the evening and people need a refill ASAP.

Coupled with an app to help you calculate the decanting time this gadget from Breville has a decanter that is placed on a small appliance. You turn the dial to suit the recommended decanting time and 1hr becomes 1 minute. In a minute a lovely science experiment happens and the wine will bubble and shift before being a very different wine. We’ve done comparisons with cheap wine and good wine, adding half a bottle to the decanter and half straight into glasses and even on a blind taste test it is a very obvious difference. It certainly does what it says on the packet, as long as you can stomach the cost.

Available for $699.95 here