Would it be tacky or improper etiquette to collaborate with someone else on getting a gift for the bride-to-be?
The bride is my boyfriend’s brother’s fiancee, and I was thinking about asking my boyfriend’s other brother’s girlfriend to get a gift with me, and we’d split the cost. My gift idea is getting wine glasses from the bride’s registry, and a bottle of wine to go along with them. Total it would be ~$75, and we’re both college students, so I feel like $35-$40 is a good amount to spend. We’re not very close, and I’m not very close to the bride (the bride and the other girlfriend are fairly close, as they’ve both been in the family for several years).
I wouldn’t consider doing something like this, except that I’m 20 and can’t legally buy alcohol yet, and I have no better gift ideas…
No not at all–in fact I’d say the bride and groom prefer it. Many groups go in together so that they can get a bigger item. My MIL is a school teacher and all the teachers went in together to get us a Kitchenaid mixer. My friends have all gone in together to get a piece of furniture put on a registry.
You are in college and can’t afford much. A gift is based on how much you can afford. When I was in college I couldn’t have done $40 on someone I wasn’t close to. Another idea is to buy all the cheap items off the registry. You can get a garlic press, lemon zester, ice cream scoop, a spatula, plastic pitcher and some flashlights for about $15. I used to do that a lot–that way when it was all in a box it was a lot of items. But I really like your idea of the wine glasses and a bottle of wine.
It’s no different from getting a gift card and the bride using them to buy the items off her registry.
A Wine Of The Month Gift Keeps Giving All Year Long
Want to give a gift that keeps on giving month after month? A wine of the month gift club membership will do just that. This wine gift will impress your special friends, family, or business acquaintances, for as long as the club membership lasts. Because this gift extends over a period of months, it will send a little “reminder” each month of how much you care as a new bottle of wine is delivered to the lucky recipient.
The gift of sending wine every month is not a new concept – fruit of the month clubs have been very popular for decades. However, the latest trend has been towards a gift that sends a little different message – the monthly wine gift. Many individuals have discovered the wonderful taste of wines; whether they are red, white or rose. A delightful wine experience, combined with the well published health benefits of red wines, has created today’s popular trend toward drinking fine wines.
Benefits of a Wine of the Month Gift Club
Purchasing a wine of the month gift club membership really enhances a gift of fine wine by making it a year-round event. Each month, a new and exciting wine is delivered to the gift recipient’s front door, reminding them of your thoughtfulness.
Receiving a different wine each month is infinitely more exciting than getting a case of the same vintage and brand as a one-time gift. Most wine of the month clubs provide 12 unique vintages, each one carefully chosen to represent the season in which it is sent.
One of the major benefits of giving a wine of the month gift is that you need not worry about buying the bottle yourself, having it wrapped, and presenting it to the lucky recipient. Sending someone a membership, or subscription, to a wine of the month club means that the excitement of receiving a gift is not a once a year event, but a monthly celebration as a new, unknown vintage is delivered right to their home.
A Wine Gift Membership is Elegant – And Easy!
The beauty of giving this kind of wine gift is that all you need to do is make the initial choice, based on the wine costs and delivery charges, and leave the rest up to the wine specialists at the membership club. The difficult task of selecting the right wines is in the hands of the membership experts. If you choose a monthly subscription from a reputable club, you can be certain that their wine specialists will choose an appropriate wine within your selected price range. It really doesn’t get much easier!
Most wine of the month gift memberships are paid for up-front and cover the length of the subscription period. You may also be able to specify the recipient’s wine preferences and they will do their best to accommodate their specific wine tastes. No need for you to become a wine “expert” to ensure that the selections will be appreciated.
And don’t forget – a monthly gift of wine is a nice reminder of how much you care about the person receiving the wine. They will know that you thought enough of them to provide them with a special gift every month of the year, not just a gift quickly forgotten once opened.
We are thinking of giving wine as Christmas gifts for our business. What are some recommendations?
There are many great moderate priced wines in the market. Our recommendation is to stay away from mass merchandised wines or commoditized wines in the market.
Examples of commodity wines are Yellow Tail, Kendall Jackson, Beringers, Mondavi Select, BV Coastal, etc.
We always consider hidden gems to use for our gift baskets and gifts in general. Salentein, El Portillo, Tohu, Kim Crawford are a few that I’d recommend.
Check us out if you need assistance putting together your holiday gift ideas.
~DWS
How to Wrap a Gift : How to Gift Wrap a Wine Bottle
In Australia, wine has become the new beverage of choice for people in all walks of life. Moreover, Australia has developed an enviable reputation amongst wine drinkers and appreciators the world over. Myshopping.com.au can help you make the right selection of wine for any occasion and to suit any taste. Listed on our website, you will find some of the most celebrated labels and award winning wines and you can make a selection based on reviews, price and supplier, regardless of why you want to purchase wine.
Wine
There are essentially three reasons that we can think of why you might want to buy wine: to drink in some social occasion, to give as a gift, or as an investment with a realisable future.
Buying wine to drink
Winemaker Greg Gallagher at the Charles Sturt University, South Australia, says judging a good wine is simple. “It starts with asking, ‘do you like it?’ ” he says, “and finishes with ‘did you like it?’” When you have a list of favourite wines, all you need to do is find them on Myshopping.com.au, and you will find out where it’s sold for the best price.
But, because it’s not always easy remembering the name, style and vintage of the wine you enjoy, it’s a good idea to keep a record of wines you drink that you really like (and those that you’d prefer to avoid), for future reference.
When you’re buying wine to drink, there are a number of considerations you might like to bear in mind, the first being: what is the occasion? It stands to reason that a wine for an intimate dinner with a partner might be a different choice than one for a footy night with the boys. Sharing a wine with someone is a lot more than simply sharing the drink. It’s also sharing your taste, your values and your standards, so it pays to think carefully about the occasion and the company with whom you are sharing the wine.
A second consideration might be, what is accompanying the wine? Wine is often enjoyed with a meal, but you might like to consider also how the occasion (or meal) will develop. Matching the perfect wine with the perfect food and mood is an exhilarating experience, and is often at the heart of great memories.
You may also want to consider the ambience of the occasion. A wine for enjoying at an evening symphony concert will have a different character to that enjoyed at a beach picnic.
Buying wine as a gift
Wine makes an excellent gift for many reasons. It’s an easy purchase; you can buy a wine to suit practically any budget. And it is a demonstration of your taste and standards, subtly imparted to someone whom you may care for.
However, as well as meeting your taste standards, you also need to choose a wine that will meet the tastes of the receiver. It pays to find out what sort of wine that person enjoys, and buy within that person’s style or region preferences. A person who enjoys sweet white wines will appreciate a gift that matches that personality.
Buying wine as an investment
Some wines make a good investment because they are rare and have an established reputation causing them to appreciate in value. Possibly the most famous of these in Australia is Penfolds’ Grange Hermitage, a Shiraz style Claret that has been made since 1951 (a bottle of that vintage now might set you back $50,000 or more if you can find one). Although young in terms of wine heritage, Australia has some notable wines that do and will appreciate in value.
A good investment wine is not necessarily a guarantee of a high quality drinking wine. The investment values are arrived at by reputation. A particular vintage may have enjoyed popularity for any number of reasons and become scarce because only a limited number of bottles were produced. What results is a collectors market and wine changes hands through auctions, private sales, estate dissolutions and wine club memberships.
What makes a good investment wine however, is the fact that you are able to sell the wine at some future date for a sum greater than what you paid. Therefore the condition of the wine-or more importantly, the bottle-is of paramount consideration. The provenance of an investment wine is important. Before buying, you need to establish its history of origin and previous ownership. Satisfied that the bottle is in good condition, once in your possession it needs to be cellared correctly in the absence of heat, light and movement. You should document your ownership and the conditions of its cellaring before selling it to a new buyer.
What makes good wine?
The winemaking process
The quality of a wine is affected by a wide variety of factors that occur in and as a result of the winemaking, cellaring and handling processes. One of the key factors is the terrain and climate, commonly referred to as a ‘region’, where the grapes are grown. Different conditions affect different varieties differently. A Shiraz style from McLaren Vale in South Australia, for example, is a heavier and darker wine than the same style from the Swan Valley in Western Australia, which tends to be lighter and more peppery. A Chardonnay from the Hunter Valley is more full-bodied than one from Margaret River.
While knowing which vines are best suited to a soil type and climate is one aspect, another is knowing when to pick the fruit for particular effect. The fruit’s flavour at the time of picking is a major character of the residual flavours of the wine. After initial fermentation, some winemakers choose to ferment in oak, others not to. Using oak affects the reduction of tannins in the wine. Different types of oak-English, American, old-affect the flavour and character of the wine as it matures to its nominal alcohol level. It is in the barrel that a lot of transformations in flavours and character occur, and a great deal of skill is required to know exactly when to bottle the wine.
Different winemakers have different techniques and, while a good wine can’t be made from bad grapes, it is largely the winemaker’s skill that produces a good wine.
Taste
One of the ways we can tell the quality of wine as judged by its taste, is whether it has had successes in any of a number of wine shows held around the country. Experts from the wine industry judge wines on their quality and medal winners enjoy the benefits of being recognised and written about in the main media.
While not every medal winner is a wine that suits our taste, it is as a direct result of the shows and competitions that Australian wines have grown in popularity and quality. At Myshopping.com.au you can compare many award winning wines.
What’s your taste?
Regions and style
When you are shopping for wine, one of the first questions to answer is whether you are choosing a red wine or a white wine. Once you have decided this, you can then start to narrow down the different styles. Begin with the question of whether you are seeking a dry wine or a sweet wine.
Styles of wine are named after the region from which the grape originated. In the popular dark reds you have the Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot styles that tend to be drier wines. Lighter reds feature Beaujolais, Pinot Noir and Rose styles and these tend toward sweeter wines.
Popular white wines include the Chablis, Riesling, Semillon, Chenin, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay styles in dry wines, with Traminer Riesling, Moselle and late picked Verdelho in the sweeter styles. Aperitifs include sweet and dry sherry and Marsala. Dessert wines include Sauternes, Muscats and Ports.
Many wines are now presented as blended wines, a way to offer wider variety in taste and a way to use up less popular grapes and thereby minimise waste in the industry.
Australia has more than a dozen identified wine growing regions that produce distinctive wines of the main styles. The Barossa Valley in South Australia is possibly the most famous region with the richest heritage, and features many labels from subregions such as Claire Valley, McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek and the Adelaide Hills. These regions produce some of the most spectacular Riesling wines, and Shiraz styles in the country. East of this region, near the border with Victoria lies the Coonawarra district (also known as Riverland), famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon. In Victoria lie the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsular districts. The Goulbourn Valley lies on the border with New South Wales. The Hunter Valley in New South Wales produces some of Australia’s finest wines, while in the West, Margaret River, t4he Swan Valley and the Plantagenet districts all produce fine wines.
Trends
Recent economic conditions and consecutive years of oversupply have changed much of Australia’s wine market. There are many small boutique wineries whose products can be bought direct from the cellar door. Many of these wines are featured on Myshopping.com.au by style and region.
The wine industry is encouraging the buying of wines and cellaring them (storing them in a cool place) for a period of time and enjoying them at a later time. To cellar your wine, store it somewhere cool, dark, airy, and free from vibration and dampness. Temperature stability is the most important factor in preserving wine in the cellar. Storing wine in an environment where the temperature varies gradually with the seasons is better than in a room that varies with the day and night.
For long-term storage, the ideal cellar temperature is 18 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 60-75%. Warmer conditions accelerate the development of wines, which could mean a reduction in the pleasure of drinking them.
The second phenomenon to occur through oversupply is the introduction of cleanskins, a method of selling wine without a brand label. This is presented as being ‘money saving’ because of a reduction in marketing expense, however the real cost saving per bottle is around 3-5 cents (the cost of printing and applying a label).
Cleanskins enable a wine producer to present a lower cost bottle, but this is mostly achieved by not having to identify the origins of the grape, or the varietal blends that make up the wine. And while it is true that some cleanskins are eminently drinkable wines, evidence suggests that they are generally of a far poorer quality than branded label products. It is suggested that you taste the wine before purchasing any cleanskins.
Wine is a high fashion product, and wine trends emerge on a regular basis. The best way to follow these trends is to shop using Myshopping.com.au—comparing prices and suppliers, and following medal winning labels.
I am trying to choose one for a gift for a friend in Perth but unfortunately know little about wine.. but these were the two brands that someone told me it was a safe bet to stick to.. so..
opinions pls!
Whoever told you these two brands should have mentioned Penfolds and Mollydooker. Penfolds is the safest bet for a great Aussie wine, their Grange is a legend, and they are easy to find and universally known for quality. Try Bin 389, 128, or Thomas Hyland. If you can find Mollydooker Enchanted Path Shiraz you would be a hero, “The Boxer” and “Carnival of Love” are fantastic as well and much less expensive. From the same makers try Layer Cake, Barossa Jack, Maverick, or Desert Eagle, all phenomenal Shiraz for less than $20. Barossa is such a great area for Shiraz, Australia’s signature wine.
So are you looking for easy handmade romantic gifts ideas to surprise your boyfriend or girlfriend? When searching for the best romantic gift ideas, you will find many choices and it is sometimes easy to get confused. So this free guide is going to help you find romantic ideas easily.
You know how many different types of romantic gifts we have. Some of them are very common and almost everyone and their brother are already giving it to their partners – like flowers, chocolates, cards, candle light dinner, and so on.
So how about you make your romantic gift more unique, special, and unusual by making a handmade romantic gift. Your partner will cherish and appreciate your thoughtful attention much more this way.
Handmade gifts are more romantic and memorable. It makes your partner see how much you care about him/her because you spent the time and energy to make your handmade gift.
Whether your gift is for Valentine’s Day, birthday, anniversary, or any other occasion, your homemade gift will make the even much more special and memorable for a lifetime.
So what kind of handmade gifts are more romantic? Here are 3 ideas to help you…
1. Romantic Love Letters
You can surprise your boyfriend/girlfriend with a romantic love letter. You can either write it yourself or simply use one of the many love letters available online.
Why not find a great creative idea for your romantic gift to surprise your partner? There are many unique unusual ideas you can choose from to make your gift something your partner will remember for the rest of his/her life.
3. Romantic Treasure Hunt Game
It is a very exciting and also sexy game you can play. Simply prepare several pieces of paper and make a step by step treasure hunt plan.
Each step can be a romantic question your partner should answer or a romantic or sexy move to do. Then if they win, they can pass to the next step.
The reward at the end of the game will be something really romantic and special so they look forward to it. This handmade romantic gift is a creative idea to play for any occasion.
About the Author
Looking for Unique Romantic Gifts Ideas to surprise your partner? You can find many easy romantic ideas to make your gift more special and memorable for a life time.
Check out these free Unusual Romantic Gifts ideas to discover the perfect gift ideas now.
Romantic Birthday Ideas for Boyfriend’s 21st?
My boyfriend is turning 21, and I want to do something romantic! He’s a hopeless romantic with me and I want to keep up =)
I already got the gifts:
Makers Mark Whiskey (his favorite)
Makers Mark Cigar
Sterling Silver bar set
Bartending guide
So….what should I do on the day of?
Food really is the way to a man’s heart. So do something creative involving food. Breakfast in bed. A picnic. Dinner on the roof. Send him on a scavenger hunt to find you (dressed up and pretty ) waiting at a restaurant.
Little things go a ways too…make him a card, spell out something romantic w/ glow in the dark stars above his bed, make a scrapbook of memories you share.
Plan an event together…day @ the spa, a hiking trip, whatever he enjoys…
Thats about all I can think of…
What to buy the women in your life – Holiday gift guide
) waiting at a restaurant.