3 good tips for choosing a wine to give at Christmas

Whether it is a modest purchase or a budget with many zeros, a good bottle of wine will certainly delight the fortunate recipient, brightening the holidays and enriching the tables of every family. However, if you decide to give a wine, a thousand doubts always arise: red or white gift? 1 or 2 bottles? Perhaps better a sparkling wine?

When giving wine, it is good not to fall into banality. For the wine to be an original and unique gift, it must be chosen by concentrating your thoughts on the person who will receive it. This shows, indeed, that it is not a banal gift, precisely because you thought of his personality, his tastes, recalling to mind all the glasses of wine drunk together.
Do you want to give a wine without getting the bottle wrong? Here are 3 criteria that will help you choose the most suitable wine:

Established the fact that wine will not be given to a teetotaller, whether the recipient is a man or a woman, could make a difference. In any case, if you do not know the tastes in detail, rely on red wine. If your gift is intended for a man, we are sure that the dad, the boyfriend, your brother or the grandparents, each of them will rejoice in the choice made, which will probably go to enrich their wine cellar. You could consider a classic Chianti, emblem of Tuscan oenological tradition, such as the Chianti Vergine delle Rocce Da Vinci I Capolavori collection, or a versatile Rosso di Montalcino from the Leonardo Da Vinci line. Red wine easily brings everyone together, even the fair sex. Think of your female friend, who gladly enjoys a glass of red not only as an aperitif, but also at dinner in company. For her our Sangiovese Superiore Riserva, Collection 1502 Da Vinci in Romagna is perfect: a richness and a softness of aroma that tells genuine and timeless values. If, instead, you are thinking of a gift for a convinced “white wine lover”, then it will be ideal to embrace the luminous and floral charm of the Pinot Grigio Dama con l’Ermellino from the I Capolavori collection.
Given the seasonality of the holidays, sparkling wine is often one of the most clichéd gifts, but not for that reason banal, perhaps also because it recalls the idea of Christmas toasts. A sparkling wine is an excellent choice, especially if given to a woman, notoriously more attached to the brisk effervescence of golden bubbles.

An inexperienced palate is an untrained palate, which needs guidance in tasting. Give him time to taste a few more glasses, but in the meantime try to tempt him with an easy and drinkable wine, aiming for accessible taste, especially on the palate, like the Linarius Syrah Toscana IGT: balanced, silky and enveloping tannin, long and persistent. Wines like Barolo or Amarone are certainly well-known even to the less experienced, but giving such structured wines will not help to properly appreciate the complexity of wines so challenging to decipher. True is that if the friend is a true show-off, you can still make him proud of you by giving him an excellent Amarone della Valpolicella, which he will be able to show off at the next dinner with all his friends (you included, it is hoped).
If you give wine to a connoisseur, a wine lover, a passionate or even a sommelier, things get a bit complicated. Why? Because he almost always knows more than you. Then play it safe, rely on tradition, on a wine that never goes out of style. The famous “great classic”, the ever-green, capable of holding its own even against the most hardened taster. Perhaps it will be a wine that will not surprise, but certainly it will hit the mark, because, as always, it will demonstrate its unfailing certainty, both on the nose and on the palate. Symbol of Italian wine excellence, give a true connoisseur a Brunello di Montalcino like our San Giovanni Battista Brunello di Montalcino from the Da Vinci I Capolavori Collection, or a refined S.to Ippolito Toscana Rosso from the Villa Da Vinci line. If instead you really want to surprise him, give him an exclusive and niche wine like Vin Santo: a wine for dessert and meditation that remains impressed in the memory of those who savour it as a sweet and indelible memory.