Interesting Gift For Your Favorite Food & Wine Obsessed Friends or Clients

If you or your boss have an adventurous food and wine obsessed friend or client that always loves to have the latest and greatest new finds - you might want to try sending them this pasta from Marche Noir Foods that's made from wine flour. It's a unique gift that won't break the bank.

Vinobrary

If your boss or someone close to you loves wine or wants to give a gift to someone who does, the New York Times just did a interesting article about a couple of fascinating wine books that would make great gifts.

Bring Your Own Vino

Work is insane, so I only have time for a super quick tip. If you or your boss like to bring your own wine to restaurants, it's good to know which places you can do it and how much the corkage will be. Try this new site that has info for many cities. It's a useful tool if you are into the vino.

Drunken Dessert

I've written before that wine lovers are a hard group to buy for because they are passionate bunch and often they get themselves the things they want, as they just can't wait. I get super excited when I see a wine item that is semi under the radar that I can buy for a wine lover as a gift. I recently read about these wine cellar sorbets and them seem like a great item for someone who loves wine and dessert. It looks like currently you can't order online because they are changing that part of their site, but you can call them and place an order or find a local store that sells it.

VinoGoogle Sort Of

Works a bit busy and I'm cramming in lunch and blogging at the same time (count yourself lucky this isn't a vlog and you don't have to see me stuffing my face quickly). It's a short tip today, but a useful one. I just recently read about the wine search engine called Vinquire and it seems pretty cool. You can find wine prices, retailers and reviews on the site. They even have blog with more scoop. If you need to buy a wine related gift for your boss or want to get some wine for yourself to get through the day at work, check it out.

A Few Gifts For the Vinophile Who Has Everything

Most of the wine lovers I know are pretty passionate people who buy everything wine related they can get their hands on, so it's hard to buy them a present that has to do with wine. Here are a few gift ideas for the Vinophile in your life that they might not know about:

I just heard about this recent book by A.J. Rathbun that's all about wine cocktails. This would be a great hostess gift or just a fun thing to give a friend who loves wine. I love that he took the whole hipster mixologist vibe and wrote about wine drinks. As I have said before, gift recipients tend to really get enthused about something that's surprising and unpredictable and this definitely falls into that category.

How about Wine Salami?. No that's not a misprint, I said WINE SALAMI. I think this is the perfect gift for the foodie in your life that also loves wine.

Winerd is also a great option. It's a board game all about wine. This would also make a great hostess gift for the right party.

If you make a tiny bit of extra effort when trying to find gifts for people who have everything and are obsessed about a particular topic, it can really make a big difference. As I have said before, the quality of the gift often doesn't have to do with money. None of the gifts above are pricey, but they are all unique.

A Few Favorite Housewarming Gifts

Housewarming gifts can be tricky to find especially if you don't just want to give a staple like wine or a plant. Here's a few ideas I like:

Glass Water Pitcher & Cup For A Nightstand from Crate & Barrel This is a chic, simple and inexpensive item that people always like and never buy for themselves.

Handblown Glass That Can Be Used As A Cup Or Votive Holder from Glassybaby - I have mentioned these once before, but they warrant another mention. They are unique and reasonable and the whole world hasn't found them yet.

Dream Blanket/Throw From Brookstone -My favorite throw/blanket on the market. This one is better than many I have seen at 3 times the price.

Food Oils to Cook With Gift Set From Oliviers & Co - This is packaged in a cute way, useful to anyone that cooks and it isn't pricey.

If you do want to spend a bit more, here's 2 other options:

Ralph Lauren Cashmere Throw Trimmed With Suede - This is truly beautiful and high quality. If budget is of no concern at all go for it - all $950 dollars of it.

Laguiole Wine Corkscrew - You could give this with a bottle of wine or without. They are pricey, but unusually pretty and handcrafted.

Drink It Up

If you or your boss wants to send an alcoholic beverage to a client or friend, I have a couple of local places (and one in NYC) to suggest and a few ideas for what to buy. Be forewarned, in this town MAKE sure you figure out if the person drinks or is sober before you send, as I have seen that particular mistake happen before and it's never pretty.

Top 5 Places to Buy

1) Wally's Wine - They deliver, have a great selection and are incredibly helpful.

2) Du Vin - My friend Ainsley loves this place. They also deliver and have a helpful staff. She often speaks to Rob.

3) Vendome in Studio City - If you are working in the valley this is a great option, but I'm not sure if they deliver. They have a surprisingly extensive collection and a great staff.

4) Sherry Lehmann in NYC If you're in NYC, this is the one place I always use.

5) BevMo - If you need something for yourself or price is a big issue, this place (many locations) has good deals and staff that's helpful.

What You Might Buy:

Champagne/Sparkling Wine:

Veuve Cliquot is a good choice that's fairly reasonable.

If you want to do something a bit more special try this from Schramsberg. My cousin Leah who works in the wine business and knows all about wine loves their stuff.

Riondo Prosecco - Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV (which I love) really likes this one.

Red:

For a reasonable one try, a Mondavi Cabernet. If cost isn't an issue, try a Silver Oak Cabernet.

White:

One that is liked by many is Sauvignon Blanc. A good one to try is this one from Frog's Leap Winery. If you have a boss or a client that is very into being eco friendly (and hopefully everyone is), this winery is known for being very friendly to the environment.

I love sweeter whites, so if you do as well, try this Gewürztraminer or spend a bit more and buy this one.


Other Options Besides Wine:

Compass Box Whiskey - I have not tried this, but have given it as a gift for a boss and the recipient liked it quite a bit.

Crop Vodka - I just read about this over the weekend. It's an artisanal Vodka that is produced in a green/environment friendly way. It comes in some interesting flavors.

Frida Kahlo Tequila certainly has a cool looking bottle and has been well reviewed. If you want to break the bank, go for this Tequila .

Obviously this email includes lots of suggestions, but if you know your budget and a bit about the person, the best thing you can do is to go into one of the locations listed above and ask for help.

Lessons You Can Learn From A Man That Really Loves Wine

I have a phone interview to prep for and I should be writing and job searching, but I'm so torqued up about this posting that I decided I would take a break and write it. A little while back I did this posting about unique wine books. One of the books I mentioned was by a guy name Gary Vaynerchuk who if you haven't heard has become a bit of an Internet phenomenon (especially in the wine business). Gary is a guy who was running and growing his parents wine business (successfully I might add), but he felt something was missing and that he wasn't quite happy. He decided to start doing videos about wine that were fun and enthusiastic and the opposite of the snotty and condescending type of stuff you would often hear from wine experts. Things have gone nuts for him ever since. His company is thriving, but he is also a speaker in much demand and his main message to people is about Passion and doing what you love. He spoke recently at a conference in New York and it's truly energizing and inspiring to watch, I swear if you take the time to click here and view it, you won't be sorry. I think it's the best talk on creating a brand I have ever seen.

The reason this relates to all of us that are working in entertainment (and truly it applies to all fields) is that it can be rough at times in this business and you have to really love what you do and want to be here to get through it.

By the way, Gary is big into Twitter, so if you want to follow him there either sign up and then follow GaryVee or you can check out his feed here without signing up (don't forget, you can see me on there as well). This article is about all of the actors, directors and writers that are on Twitter. My favorite so far is Jon Favreau.

Items for your Vinobrary

Obviously Vinobrary is not a real word, but it's my blog and I'll make up words if I want to. If you want to add to your wine knowledge or need to buy a client or your boss some interesting wine books, here are a few ideas:

1) Love by the Glass by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher. This couple writes the popular Tastings column for the Wall St. Journal. This book is a bit more interesting than your typical book about wine because you are learning about their marriage and life together and how wine has been involved along the way.

2) Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. Gary is the Director of Operations of the Wine Library, a wine retail shop in New Jersey, who gained fame as the host of Wine Library TV, a daily Internet webcast on the subject of wine. Gary and one of my favorite writers, Joel Stein (who is hilarious), did a piece for Time where they tasted wines from all 50 states. The article is interesting, but the video of them blind testing some of the wines is informative and really funny.

3) The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace. This book is about a scandal that ensued after an auctioned cache of wine bottles purported to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson are called fakes.