Buying Gift Wine Woes....

You've probly been through this before...

I remember my first time going wine-shopping for my ex-Boss's Dinner party knowing he's an avid drinker I was keen to impress...

Staring at hundreds of bottles of wines and me being 21 years old at that time didn't know any better... I have heard of my ex-Boss mentioning he's favorite wine is the delicate Pinot Noir. I looked around and saw an obscure one from Romania (*slaps forehead*), I thought I was being Creative by buying something from an unknown Region such as Romania (Home to Count Dracula)!! What the hell was I thinking??!

Next time I'll impress my Boss with this sucker...

Although undoubtedly Romania is within Europe and under the EU; I thought how bad can it be ? At present I'm not sure if Romanian Wines are listed as Old World Wines.... But interestingly I found out on Wikipedia:-

According to Wikipedia.com:
In the 1880s, phylloxera (a pale yellow sap-sucking insect that attacks the roots of vines) arrived in Romania from North America. The phylloxera wiped out a majority of Europe's vineyards, including those in Romania. Eventually, many of the Romanian vines were replaced by those imported from France and other foreign nations, such as Merlot, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.
In 2003, Romania was the twelfth largest wine producing country in the world.


However, that wasn't enough to impress my ex-Boss.. One sip of the wine, all he blurted was "Very Dry! " I was devastated,  there goes my RM 69.90 damnit!! I absolutely lost confidence in picking wines for gifts after that...
Lesson learned, if you're buying Pinot Noir for someone as Gift, how bout a French Burgundy or a decent Australian Pinot Noir?

Me and my boyfriend were at a Supermarket last month picking out a Wine to bring to my Boss's Steamboat party... I suggested to him the few that I thought was great and my God, CHEAP... He said No, No, it'll be frowned upon and he insisted we had to make an impression... Ok, I said, You pick.

If my memory was right, I think he got an Ernest & Julio Gallo's Cabernet Sauvignon... Then later we arrived for dinner and handed the bottle to my Boss who didn't even bat a wink and placed the bottle aside which prompted my boyfriend to ask me when we got home if that was some kind of Asian thing not opening the bottle brought by your Guests...

So let's make this simple;

1) Know your Host
The Connoisseur
You can always walk into a Wine Shop and get the assistant to recommend a good one according to your budget; in retrospect you can always blame the shop assistant! :-)
If you're feeling bold and know your host personally, you can either Google the best Region for the particular wine...
Buying for a Girl friend;
Safe choice would be Wine from Hot climate Countries such as Australia or California is always a safe bet. Girls like em' fruity or floral.

Buying for a Guy friend;
A lot of guys have a disliking towards sweet, fruity wine. Then again guys aren't as fussy as Women....
2) Budget
It is no point to spend above RM 100 for a Fine Wine if you don't know the Vintage Report or any clue about the Wine Region. There's a massive selection of great wines price range from RM 40 to RM 60!

3) What do YOU like ?
It's easier to defend your purchase when you know you prefer fruity, floral, high tannin, Spicy or Dry Wine types.