A common and simple gift during the holiday season is sometimes a bottle of red wine but the questions remains… how do you decide?

Of course we the time of year, the occasion, what you might be eating and finally, your budget. What if I told you that In High Five Wine Club for the last three months we have been scoring the perfect three wines for you to choose from for the perfect gifts that hit all of those points. 

 Each of these three wines pair nicely with Christmas dinners and plenty of other comforting winter time meals, they’re consistent in quality, they are remarkably affordable and most importantly, they’re red. Because, you know, Christmas colours and all that! 🍷

What they are not is your typical Cabernet Sauvignons or Pinot Noirs. And while these options are perfectly well and good, they differ substantially from winery to winery. They can be from the same place and taste completely different. That’s great fun for someone like me who studies wine for a living but for the average every day wine drinker what we know is that people like consistency and a bang for their buck. So let’s introduce our friends and family to wines offering exactly that! 

$20 is plenty for a good, even great Tempranillo. In fact many of my online wine club members scored HIGH FIVES in the five weeks we spent scoring Tempranillo together and they were all $23 or less. Look for wines from the Spanish section that say Rioja or Tempranillo and read the back of the label to see if the wine mentions being a blend. To be sure you can even spend a minute googling the wine by name and vintage to see if it’s 100% Tempranillo. Some countries don’t always say what kind of wine is in the bottle because they’re labeled by region instead. That can make it really frustrating. Rioja is a wine growing region in Spain and Tempranillo is the main red grape grown here. However, there is a second main red grape that deserves a spotlight here on our list today! But first! 

The High Five Wine Club community found Tempranillo to be consistent in aromas, flavour and overall quality. We thought the flavours were rich, complex (as in not just one dimensional - which I teach you all about in my book High Five Wine Scoring System) and had a little bit of residual sugar that contributed to a beautiful medium-bodied wine. We scored more High Fives as a community during our month scoring Tempranillo than any other single month in High Five Wine Academy history! Suffice to say, Tempranillo is a great wine gift idea!

Continuing on the theme of similar price-points, let’s talk about practical and super food-friendly wine, Garnacha! For $20 or less you’re going to get yourself a good quality bottle of wine perfect for gifting this Christmas season. The High Five Wine Club community agreed about the gorgeous aromas from the four scorings we did together all featuring Spanish Garnacha. The smells coming out of our glasses were dreamy, intoxicating and overall just very beautiful. If Garnacha was a perfume, we’d have it stockpiled! 

The High Five Wine Club community thought these wines were well balanced, fruit-forward and really appealing! Once again we were all delighted with a record breaking month of high scores - plenty of four-out-of-five as well as HIGH FIVE scores using our High Five Wine Scoring System wine journal book! That would be a wonderful accompaniment to any wine gift! How about a gorgeous wine journal to keep a record of the wines you try! Stocking stuffer combo! Garnacha really stood out because of its versatility in the food department. You could pair this wine with anything from braised pork to duck with cherry sauce and even a burger with smoked gouda and BBQ sauce! Yum!

We’re sticking to wallet friendly wines with consistent and dependable Carménère from Chile. Is it ok to give wine as a gift? If you’re offering Carménère then my answer is yes, absolutely! A fun fact about this grape is when it was originally planted in Chile in the 1850’s it was believed to be Merlot! It wasn’t until 1994 when it was discovered to actually be Carménère. It does share many similarities and so if you know someone in your life who loves Merlot then this would be such an interesting gift! You just might be introducing your friend or family member to their next new favourite wine to explore! (You’re welcome!)

A good quality Chilean Carménère will cost you between $12-$15, a great one will be $16-$25 and beyond. That’s pretty promising! 

This is a great stocking stuffer for any red wine lover! It has an inky dark colour that is oh so pretty, a beautifully smokey aroma with plenty of fruity notes and finally it pairs well with leaner cuts of meat, roasted veggies and earth sauces like chimichurri. Remember that smokey note? Any time you see a wine with smoke as a potential aroma or flavour you can bet it will go well with BBQ flavours! 

No matter which of these three wines you choose, your gift will be one to remember! It won’t be a typical wine you see often and it will be a welcome to surprise to know that if they really loved their wine they can find it easily and for such a great price! Win-Win! 

The gift giver is often plagued with questions about what to give and how much to spend. 

Let me ask you another question. 

What if you bought your friend a bottle of wine that was very expensive. First, the price of the wine never guarantees whether or not someone will enjoy that specific wine so unless you’re 100% sure your gift receiver is a die-hard Chablis fan (for example) - don’t go out and spend $70 on a Chablis. 

The second thought I have is if you do spend $70 or even $30 on a Chablis and they absolutely LOVE it, is this a wine within your gift receivers budget to enjoy again?

The price tag on the bottle matters less than you might think!

And finally, if you’re really stumped and feel a bit overwhelmed by the thought of buying wine as a gift, maybe the right thing to do is to buy a wine gift card! You can’t go wrong there.