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This week I caught an interesting post on Alder Yarrow’s blog, Vinography. In the post he passionately lobbied for the greatness of gift certificates for wine lovers. “Never buy a serious wine lover a bottle of wine for a gift, at any time of the year. Let them buy it themselves” he says. The same goes for wine accessories and wine books. Being in the wine accessory/wine retail business at Wine Enthusiast Companies, I feel compelled to respond.
I get what Alder is saying. I trust the wine taste of few of my friends. When I have parties the last thing I want as a hostess gift is wine. I fear they’ll be wasting their money on something uninspiring, that I won’t drink. The morning after I saw his post I heard a commercial on the radio for a guitar store. “Don’t buy a guitar-lover a guitar, let them select one themselves at Big Bob’s Guitar Shop!” This may be true in some cases but what if Hendrix came back from the grave and selected one for you?
I think it depends who the giver is. What about the few people I know who really love wine? Receiving a special bottle from them or a new gadget that they think I’ll enjoy is a treat. If any of my Twitter chums sent me a bottle they personally recommend, I would be ecstatic (hint hint). There is something romantic and thoughtful about getting a special selection from somebody who knows their stuff.
I think Alder’s point is only applicable to the friends who don’t know enough to put thought into the wine gift. They give you something “winey” because you’re labeled as their wine-drinking friend. To these people I say yes, I’ll gladly take a gift certificate. So the point is not to cry out: no more wine giving! But to pay attention to how familiar you are with the task at hand.
Do you enjoy receiving bottles of wine as gifts or do you prefer gift certificates?
Filed under: Wine Gifts
3 Comments
December 26th, 2008 at 2:18:24 PM
Agreed. I love to receive a bottle from a friend who is also passionate about wine, especially if they pick something up that is a hard to find bottle or something they may have discovered while traveling. I also agree that however thoughtful, getting a Kendal Jackson holiday gift pack isn’t so thrilling, don’t get me wrong, I’ll drink it, but money would have been better spent of something a little more exotic.
December 26th, 2008 at 2:45:05 PM
Erika,
I think a lot of people have missed the purpose of my article. Specifically, they’ve overlooked the audience it was written for. It’s written for the same folks who all those “wine gifts” columns in the newspaper are written for — namely those who don’t know either enough about wine or enough about the person they’re buying for to NOT need some sort of help. The folks that go online or to their local source of wine knowledge looking for help in order to get a good wine gift for uncle bob, the guy who’s got 1000 bottles in his cellar, are PRECISELY the people that should be getting gift certificates.
Alder
December 31st, 2008 at 12:13:07 AM
Hmm, but Alder I have to assume that people who read and comment on your blog are those who probably DO know enough about wine or enough about the person they’re buying for to NOT need some sort of help. It’s guys like ‘Uncle Bob’ who read your blog, not their nephew Billy. And that is probably why a lot of people (including myself) did miss the purpose of your article.