Great wine is near and dear to Bryan and my hearts; trips to wineries, tours of wine caves and spending hours sipping, swirling and learning pretty much describe our favorite weekends. Considering those weekends happen, eh, maybe once a year, instead we do our best to recreate those joyful, boozy times in our own place. We have a fantastic wine fridge (thank you Costco), received a solid decanter gift, found a reliable wine opener and even belong to a consistently great winery club. We're happy wineauxs, but if we had free reign on wine gifts, here's what we'd recommend:
The monthly club offers two different wine clubs, one for wines selected for everyday drinking and one for special occasions wines. Get hand-selected wines form boutique wineries around the world, expert wine tasting notes with recipe pairings from NYT; shipments sent to your home or office; free shipping on wine cases, and a full satisfaction and replacement guarantee. Best of all, there's no commitment; you can cancel anytime.
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The simple, one-touch operation easily removes wine corks. It's rechargeable—you can open 30 bottles on a single charge. And it works with natural or synthetic cork. Also includes foil cutter, recharging base and AC adapter. From Brookstone.
Vinturi wine aerators instantly aerate your glass of wine for better bouquet, enhanced flavors and a smoother finish. No more waiting for your red wine to breathe in a decanter! Simply pour wine through the aerator into a glass. The patent-pending design accelerates wine aeration, allowing wine to breathe properly in no more time than it takes to pour a glass. Elegant stand allows for hands-free use of the aerator. Simply place the aerator in the stand, position your glass underneath, and pour red wine through the Vinturi aerator into your glass. Enjoy immediately!
A perfect way to preserve your keepsake wine corks and protect your tabletops! Home accents that are as sentimental as they are useful, you can fully customize these drink coasters with your used wine corks—small, special mementos of celebrations spent with family and friends. Set of four beverage coasters, each measures 4¼” x 4¼”. Coaster made from eco-friendly mahogany sourced from sustainable tree plantations.
Need to chill your wine, and fast? Forget the freezer. Simply put your bottle into this electric wine chiller, which has precise, preprogrammed temperatures for 33 varieties of wine; an LCD backlit screen; and is suitable for wine bottles with a diameter up to 3-1/2 inches.
This Whynter Dual Temperature Zone wine cooler -- available at Costco -- offers premium quality and sophisticated design. It allows for 32 bottles of wine storage capacity; 16 bottles in the right zone and 16 bottles in the left zone with vibration-free thermoelectric cooling. Many wine coolers use a compressor to provide the cooling function which generates vibrations that can easily disrupt the delicate sediments in fine wine. With the thermoelectric system, your wine is kept at the appropriate temperature and humidity levels without damaging vibrations. This cooling system has no moving parts and is CFC-free, which means that you get silent, long-lasting, and environmentally safe refrigeration for your collection. fridge has a sleek stainless steel door trim with an ergonomic towel bar handle glass door. The removable luxurious stainless steel racks in the unit allow you to display and store your wine collection as desired.
Didn't finish a bottle of wine? Forget freezing it in ice cubes to use in your next stock. Use the Vacu-Vin wine saver, which extracts air from opened bottles to slow down the oxidation process and keep wine fresh for 7 to 10 days. Ingenius "click" sounds tells you when optimum vacuum level is reached. Comes to stainless steel vacuum pump, 2 reuseable rubber stoppers and 2 crystal-like pourers.
Enjoyed a wonderful tasting last week with Proud Wineaux. It was a very relaxed, fun atmosphere where we learnt a lot about wine. The host was clearly very passionate about wine and made everyone feel welcome.
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