What to ask for when asking for wine this Christmas

Here’s how this works: “I would like a bottle of Champagne to open before dinner on New Year’s Eve.” Or, “I would like a bottle of Chianti Classico to open with turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day.” If you can include your gift giver in the purpose, then you may leverage their enlightened self-interest. If you’re angling for a whole case of wine, then I suggest you ask for one from a specific purveyor. I don’t mean a provincial government alcohol retailer. I mean an importing company that supplies wine by the case to restaurants and collectors. In Ontario we call them agents, and I will give my loved ones a list of three I know to consistently stock good wine, with a broad category. For instance, “I would like a case of red wine from the South of France from agency A, B, or C.” Or a mixed case, since most will have a range of them on offer. The book After conversation, the best wine adjacent activity is reading, especially about wine. If your library does not yet include the latest edition of one of the big reference volumes on wine, like the Oxford Companion, Wine Grapes, or The World Atlas of Wine, then ask for them. Any of them is expensive to buy for yourself, but might fit your gift giver’s budget and wish to give you a meaningful present. If you would like a wino-literary stocking stuffer, then I suggest Geoffrey Finch’s volume, The Hidden Vineyards of Paris. Finch is a Vancouverite who has made the City of Lights his home for long enough to be the English-speaking world’s foremost authority on wine making in the French capital and the Île de France region that surrounds it. It’s published through Amazon Canada and available for the bargain price of $21.50 (when I last looked). I have been a fan of Finch’s Substack, Paris Wine Walks, since his fellow Canadian expat Parisian, Laura Calder, pointed me to it a few years ago. The book, like the website and (I presume) the guided tours he leads, uncovers secret vineyards in and around Paris with lots of photos, history, and anecdotes. On the pricier scale, anything published by the Academie du Vin Library should make for engaged holiday reading. You can send your gift giver a link. The equipment I feel about wine gadgets the way I do about kitchen gadgets: most of them are gimmicky and purport to solve problems that don’t exist. But one gift might provide a problem that you’ll find fun to solve. Ask for wine rack shelving, like this classic design kit from Canadian Tire for $60. If you already have a cellar, or some corner of your home where you store wine, then you probably could use more shelving. (I may be projecting a bit here.) If you don’t, then here’s a good way to start. Even if you’re just storing wine for days or weeks instead of years or decades, it’s fun to fill the shelves and imagine glasses of wine to come. One gadget that is essential, and definitely not gimmicky, is the “waiter’s friend” levered corkscrew. It’s the only one the pros use. It’s also the ubiquitous marketing collateral gift that every winery and professional wine association gives out at any point of contact with wine media. I have so many sommelier knives emblazoned with the logo of whoever or whatever gave them to me that my wife has banished all but a few of them from the kitchen. Most of them now occupy an entire drawer of my desk. The rest are scattered around my house, resting on a shelf or table in any room where there is any possibility I might open a bottle of wine. (Quite a few rooms, actually.) But there is a fancy one I do not own. In a league of its own, it’s one that I have coveted but is too extravagant to purchase for myself. The French made Langiole, which comes in various luxury finishes, and can cost hundreds of dollars. It’s a special occasion, silver service corkscrew. What are the holidays, other than the time for dreams and wishes to come true? I am rehearsing my line, as I type: “Darling, I would like a Langiole corkscrew to open the special bottle of wine you’re going to give me, after an afternoon reading my new book, at Christmas dinner.” Ho, ho, ho.