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Drinking Games

Gifts of hops and grapes

by Thor Iverson

It's a holiday no-brainer: giving a bottle of a favored liqueur or hard alcohol -- such as Bailey's, Amaretto, or Kahlua -- as a gift. But what do you get a beer or wine lover? A six-pack of Grain Belt isn't going to impress any of your microbrew-obsessed friends. And satisfying a wine connoisseur is even harder -- unless you know a lot about wine yourself, you're either going to get the wrong thing or be screwed over by an unscrupulous wine retailer trying to unload expensive plonk.

Strategy number one: give up. Buy a gift certificate at a local liquor store, or better yet, spring for the cost of a meal at a local brewpub or a special wine dinner (they're happening several times a week at restaurants all over the city) and share the experience.

Strategy number two: avoid the dilemma and buy wine- or beer-related stuff, rather than the beverages themselves. Crate & Barrel (140 Faneuil Hall, Boston, 617-742-6025 or Copley Place, 617-536-9400) has simple, elegant pilsner glasses (the 17-ounce Direction line goes for $8.50 per glass, and the more straightforward 13-ounce Stockholm glasses are $6.50 each) and beer mugs (14-ounce Direction and 18-ounce Donegal for $8.95 each, and 18-ounce Salzburg for $9.50 each). They also have stemware of just about every design. A warning: avoid colored or elaborately cut glass or crystal, and stick with the basics. All those additional design elements may be nice to look at, but they get in the way of appreciating what you're drinking. The Amelia pattern is particularly nice, with a classic, unadorned shape -- 20-ounce red-wine goblets are $6.95 each, and 13-ounce white-wine glasses are $6.50 each. If you prefer a slightly fancier look, the 8 1/2-ounce Argento wine glass might be the one for you; they're $12.95 each. Williams-Sonoma (100 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 617-262-5892) also has monogrammed beer mugs; $40 for a set of four.

Serious wine lovers will want the best stemware in the world: Riedel Crystal, each glass specially designed to enhance the qualities of a particular grape or type of wine (check out http://www.riedelcrytal.com/ for details). The hand-blown and hand-assembled Sommeliers series is stunning but extremely expensive; unless you've won the lottery recently, you'll probably want to stick with the hand-blown, machine-assembled Vinum series (priced from $8 to $20 per stem). Most of the better wine shops in Boston carry these glasses, but the best prices are via mail order. Contact Brown Derby International Wine Center (2023 South Glenstone, Springfield, MO 65804, 417-883-4066, or fax 417-881-0036) and ask for their catalogue and price list, or thumb through a recent copy of the Wine Spectator and look for their ad.

While you're at it, you might as well include the world's best corkscrew. The Screwpull (various models are priced between $15 and $30) is the last corkscrew anyone will ever need. There's no frustrating levering, no broken corks, no fishing bits of cork out of the wine -- just turn the handle in one direction until the worm is embedded in the cork, and keep turning the handle in the same direction as the cork slides out. The same company also makes a smaller portable version, and a tabletop version (the Leverpull, from $75 to $100 by mail order and in fine wine shops) that can decork wine in less than two seconds.

Strategy number three: take our advice. If you really want to give a beer or wine lover a special gift, here are some suggestions. We'll start with beer -- the items that follow are all available at Martignetti Liquors (650 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton, 617-782-3700).

Famous Ales of England (two cans each of Boddingtons, Fuggles, Castle Eden, and Flowers) is a nice introduction to the world of English brews beyond Bass Ale. Purchase the set in a festive case for $11.49. The Micro-Brewery Gift Selection ($10.99) is similarly packaged and would be a good gift for someone just beginning to explore alternatives to Bud Light, but true microbrew fanatics will have moved beyond the well-known products it offers.

Large-format bottles (no, we're not talking about screw-top 40s in brown paper bags) are fairly uncommon in America, but they make elaborately packaged showcases for some of the top brewed beverages. The offerings of Unibroue, a Canadian producer responsible for some fine Belgian-style products, are becoming more widely available. The Blanche de Chambly ($5.59), Maudite ($5.99), and Eau Bénite ($6.59), all in 750 ml bottles, are highly recommended.

Of course, there's no substitute for the real thing; despite what the Germans would have you believe, the finest beer in the world is produced in Belgium. In 750 ml bottles, seek out any of the following brews: Duvel Special Ale ($8.25), Chimay Ale Primière ($8.05), Chimay Cinq Cents ($8.50), Chimay Grande Réserve ($9.90), or the vintage-dated and cork-finished 1994 Lindemans Gueze Lambic Cuvée René ($9.90), a sour brew that will erase all memories of those weak-kneed fruit beers you've had in the past. Nonvintage lambics from Lindemans also include the Framboise, Kriek, and Pêche for $9.90 each. And if your beer-loving friend isn't into the heavy, intense Belgian style, try a two-liter Sapporo ($9.65) in its metallic mug design -- it's a packaging showpiece.

When it comes to gifts of wine, your options are limitless. This, of course, is the problem. Wine lovers have countless tales of well-meaning friends and relatives proudly bearing a great wine from a lousy vintage, a wine just a few letters away from the famous one the giftee wanted, a good bottle for which the giver paid too much, a great bottle ruined by poor storage that a nonexpert couldn't recognize. Wine purchases by neophytes, even well-meaning ones, are fraught with the potential for expensive error. So here's a little guidance -- this time, starting with choices from Brookline Liquor Mart (1354 Comm Ave, Allston, 617-734-7700). Also, note that any special bottle of wine is going to come with a "special" price; be prepared.

The most obvious special-occasion wine gift is champagne, and in this instance only the best will do. That means vintage champagne (the only bottles that have a date on the label). The 1976 Piper-Heidsieck Rare ($69.75) is a indeed a rarity, as few people (even wine lovers) realize what well-aged champagne tastes like. A newer, but more elegant, choice is the Veuve Clicquot Gift Set (the NV Brut Yellow Label champagne with two glasses, in a presentation box, $87.50). (As more and more of the 1990 vintage champagnes arrive on the marketplace, gift sets will start popping up everywhere, from every producer.)

Champagne aside, the best gift to give an oenophile is a mature wine. As long as you avoid the "hot" vintages (principally red Bordeaux from 1982, '86, '89, and '90), prices are often manageable. Better yet, many stores are supplied by their importers and distributors with inexpensive older vintages specifically for the holiday gift-giving season. Brookline Liquor Mart, because of its close association with Classic Wine Imports, regularly offers many mature wines (especially in its temperature- and humidity-controlled rare wine room) at reasonable prices (in the case of Bordeaux and California cabernet sauvignon, often lower than the newest vintages).

BLM's strengths are in Bordeaux -- the 1987 Haut-Brion (Pessac-Léognan) for $80 and the 1988 Château Chambert-Marbuzet (St.-Estephe) for $18.95 are both drinking well, and the silky-sweet 1985 Rieussec Sauternes is a steal at $33 -- and Burgundy -- Jean Noël Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet whites (both the regular bottling and special bottlings from Les Chenevottes, Les Masures, and Morgeot) range from $33.75 to $54 in multiple vintages, and are often discounted 10 to 20 percent when found in the bargain bins next to the cash registers.

Better values can be had from the Rhône Valley -- a particularly good selection of older vintages of E. Guigal Hermitage and Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde (starting at $30), and J. L. Chave Hermitage (up to $75) can be found at BLM. A fairly new, but hedonistic, gift is the 1995 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane for $60 (the '94 is available for the same price).

Perhaps the best deals of all are from France's Loire Valley, especially the Domaine des Baumard wines -- incredible (and undervalued) dry and sweet wines that age forever. Multiple vintages of just about everything are available; try the 1988 Savennières ($15.95), or the decadently sweet 1974 Quarts de Chaume ($28, and just coming into maturity), and the equally sweet 1989 Château de Fesles Bonnezeaux ($35).

From Italy, the 1983 Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico ($36) is a future blockbuster, but BLM's showpiece is the range of older vintages of Badia a Coltibuono's Chianti Classico Riserva ($26.50 to $63.75 for vintages ranging back to 1970, with even older examples in the rare wine room). One of Spain's finest wines, the 1990 Torres Gran Coronas Mas la Plana Gran Reserva ($39.95), will require some aging. Your best bets from Germany, because of their rarity and aging potential, are the sweet Beerenauslese, sweeter Trockenbeerenauslese, and ethereally sweet Eiswein. Eiswein is a particularly good choice, because the conditions necessary to make it virtually guarantee a quality wine. Versions from 1983 can be had in BLM's rare wine room for as little as $60 (very low for Eiswein). And California checks in with a number of aged cabernet sauvignon and Meritage blends (look for Carmenet and Heitz, in particular) and a 1990 Chalone Pinot Noir Estate for $36.60.

For the port lover, try either the 1982 Dow Single Year Tawny Reserve Porto ($30.95), the 1972 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Porto ($45), or the 1963 Gould-Campbell Vintage Porto ($80, and a rare opportunity to see what all the vintage Porto fuss is about).

At Martignetti Liquors, in Brighton, selected older wines have appeared on the shelves at relatively great prices during the holiday season. Be very aware of the warning signs of poor storage before you purchase older wines -- watch out for low fill levels (more than an inch of airspace between wine and cork when the bottle is stood upright is bad news), leakage (sticky residue coming out of the bottom of the metal or plastic capsule that covers the cork), and an extruded cork (extending more than a few millimeters above the top of the bottle). None of these factors proves that a wine is ruined, but if you decide to purchase something exhibiting any of these symptoms, be sure to get the manager to guarantee that you can return or exchange the wine if it turns out to be bad (something most wine shops will do anyway). Okay, lecture over, on to the wines:

Emilio Lustau, one of the great sherry producers, offers two deliciously complex dessert sherries, the Pedro Ximenez San Emilio ($14.99) and the DeLuxe Cream Capataz Andres ($8.99). Or hug the border between dry and sweet with the Lustau Almacenista Oloroso Pata de Gallina ($18.99). Or give the gift of Hungary's greatest vinous export in a 1988 Chateau Messzelátó Tokaji Aszú 5 puttonyos ($22.99).

Some of the most unheralded sweet wines in France are the sélection de grains nobles wines of Alsace, made only in great years from overripe grapes that may be infected with Botrytis cinerea, the "noble rot" that creates the rich dessert wines of Sauternes and Barsac. Martignetti's offers a few from top Alsatian producer Trimbach -- the 1989 Pinot Gris Sélection de Grain Nobles and 1989 Gewurztraminer Sélection de Grain Nobles are both pricey at $67.99 in 375 ml half-bottles, but either will provide an unforgettable drinking experience. Two outstanding deals in dry Alsatian wines also come from Trimbach: a 1990 Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Émile ($29.99) isn't quite ready to drink, but a 1985 Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre ($37.99) is perfectly mature. And back in the Loire Valley, a slightly more mature (and single-vineyard) version of a wine we recommended earlier is the 1988 Château de Fesles Bonnezeaux La Chapelle ($34.99).

A nice gift for a neophyte wine lover might be a selection of dry and flavorful rosés from the south of France (anything to wean people off that horrid, syrupy white zinfandel). Martignetti's has a convenient display of them right in the middle of their wine department. Prices range from $7.99 to $16.99, and at that rate you may want to pick up a couple bottles for yourself.

Champagne gift options continue with Ruinart Brut ($32.99), the slightly more elegant Bruno Paillard Brut Rosé ($49.99), and the 1989 Veuve Clicquot in a gold presentation box for $49.99. From the Rhône Valley comes an incredible deal in the 1988 Auguste Clape Cornas ($26.99), a largely unheralded appellation that produces huge, rough-edged wines and is rarely available in older vintages. And from Spain, the 1976 Marqués de Riscal Rioja Gran Reserva ($48.49) promises to introduce anyone to the aging potential of Spain's best-known red wine. (There's also a 1970 white Rioja lurking around the store -- grab it if you can find it.)

Though neither is anywhere close to maturity, the 1993 and '94 P. Antinori Tignanello ($44.99 and $47.99, respectively) are massive expressions of the power of the sangiovese grape (with a little cabernet sauvignon blended in), and will be mature sometime after 2010. Martignetti's also occasionally stocks the famous Barbarescos from Gaja and the otherworldly Sassicaia from San Guido -- if you see a bottle of either, don't hesitate to snap it up.

And finally, we turn to America (go ahead, hum "This Land is Your Land" if it makes you feel better). The 1994 Ridge Monte Bello ($48.99) is, without question, one of the world's greatest wines -- but it will need a lot of aging for the tannins to fade. The 1991 Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Lake Cabernet Sauvignon ($54.99) will be ready sooner, as it's made in a lighter and less tannic style than the Ridge. A 1991 Calera Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard (Mt. Harlan) is ready to drink now, and is a nice example of the heavier California style of pinot noir at $38.99. And the 1991 Kistler Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard (Sonoma), $37.49 from this outstanding chardonnay producer, has aged to full maturity.

If you've followed our advice, the only thing left for you to do is to make sure you're invited when the lucky recipients open their gifts!

Thor Iverson is a wine critic and Internet content coordinator for the Boston Phoenix.