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The Gift of Cheers
Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: December 2023
“Here’s to cold nights, warm friends, and a good drink to give them.” Marlene has her own form of Holiday Cheer.
It’s that time again. Christmas is approaching, the list is long, the days shorter, the time between now and then shorter still. But what to get? And then you recall the long ago advice of a parent – “give a gift you want.”
So, it’s decided, a wine-related gift it is.
And what I yearn for is glassware. I fantasize about glassware as other women do about jewelry because the elation of a delicious pour of wine into a beautiful glass is nearly inexplicable. It’s the coming together of two art forms – the pleasure of one enhancing the joy of the other – the way in which a beautiful glass exposes not only the subtleties of color but reveals the nuances of flavor and exposes levels of aromas.
The wine glass of my dreams – alas where it will likely always remain is the exquisite handmade universal wine glass designed by Kurt Joseph Zalto. A delicate and fragile beauty it is also the glass of choice of most sommeliers and wine experts.
More durable, but still wonderful, and a bit less pricey is the machine-blown Gabriel Glas Stand Art – rightfully described as the “little black dress of stemware” and another favorite of wine experts.
Nearly as pleasurable as drinking wine is reading about it. An ideal gift for devotees and newbies alike is the expanded, yet still straightforward and very readable James Beard-award-winning Wine Folly: Magnum Edition. Complete with useful graphs and charts to help you decode wine lingo and choose the perfect pairing, it’s easy to read and comes complete with graphs and maps.
Above all, bubbles remain the gift of choice for many a wine lover. The pop and pour, the foam in the glass, the lively tingle on the tongue – it all signals celebration. Whether at a dinner party, a family reunion or an office gathering there’s no better way to dial up the Christmas cheer.
Recently introduced to our market and taking local wine lists by storm is Champagne Jeeper. It was so named by the original owner in honor of the Willy Jeep he acquired from the American military at the end of World War II, thus allowing him to tour vineyards in tranquility after suffering an injury during the war, while saving the lives of American soldiers. Available at On The Verandah, Paoletti’s, Wolfgang’s, and The Library are the beautifully crisp, pale-colored rosé Champagne Jeeper and the well-rounded Blanc de Blancs with a touch of minerality and plenty of fruitiness.
