Giving wine as a present is easy enough, given the wide range that's available in the LCBO/Vintages as well as in private winery outlets like the Chateau des Charmes and Colio Estates store in Ottawa, not to mention Wine Rack and other outlets in supermarkets and malls throughout the city.
But the current interest in wine has spawned a culture of wine-related goods, some very useful, some of dubious use, and some totally tacky. As far as tacky is concerned, anyone for Chardonnay-scented candles or a throw-rug with poorly reproduced wine labels? I hope you wouldn't give these to your worst enemy.
As for the range of useful gifts, I recently looked at wine accessories in Ottawa and found that there are plenty of things to give wine drinkers on your gift list.
Let's start with glasses. If you know Riedel's "O" Series -- the wine glasses without stems, or "pre-broken," as I call them -- you'll want to have a look at the "O" Martini and Champagne glasses. Rather than having no stem, these have a wide, hollow stem and -- get this -- you fill the stem with your Martini or Champagne. Then you hold the glass by ... wait for it ... the bowl, which is empty. Check them out at $10.90 each.
Then there are devices to stop bottle drips. The basic one is the foil disc (re-usable forever at $1.95 each), but you can also buy synthetic spouts to fit a wine bottle. They really do make sense and save your tablecloths, carpets and clothes (depending how you're pouring) from wine stains.
If you do happen to miss the glass when you pour wine -- red wine especially -- there are good cleaning solutions available. A friend of mine recently covered a new white cotton jacket with red wine and found that, after treating it and washing it, it was as good and as white as new.
Some things I'm less enthusiastic about are gadgets that allegedly "age" wine quickly. They don't. If you want to improve a wine quickly, decant it.
There's a wide selection of glass and crystal decanters starting at under $20 and heading into the hundreds of dollars.
A new decanter on the market has a non-drip treatment around the lip, which is very welcome, as most decanters have a very annoying tendency to produce drips.
On the high-tech side of things, look for electric wine coolers. Just put your bottle in the cooler, select the temperature and -- voila! No ice, no water, just cool wine.
And make sure your wine friend has a decent corkscrew. The best is a simple double-hinged corkscrew, and they start at about $6.95. You can spend more if you want to, such as on a Rabbit lever-style cork-remover that includes a "tool kit" with things like a wax-remover ($99.95).
Basically, you can buy stuff for the whole process of storing, opening and serving wine. You'll find that anyone who drinks wine regularly -- whether or not they're really interested in wine as such -- will appreciate any gift that makes wine an easier and more enjoyable experience.
Among the Ottawa stores that have a good selection of wine accessories are: C.A. Paradis, 1314 Bank St; Ma Cuisine, 269 Dalhousie St; and Domus, 115 Murray St.
Four good-value wines today.