Holiday party invitation? Which wine to buy.
Jenise Stone

Wine stores are clogged like rush hour elevators at this time of year with people shopping for the perfect bottle of holiday cheer to take to a party. Or, for the lucky ones, several parties.

There are, of course, a plethora of options depending on your budget, the wine savviness of your host, and the formality of the occasion. Sit down dinners and stand-around gatherings afford you two different opportunities in which to look positively brilliant. Or not.

But first, there’s a bit of etiquette for you to absorb. That is, if you intend your bottle to be opened at the event, it’s fine to bring it brown-bagged or bare-ass naked and thrust it into your host’s hand the minute you walk in the door. That’s your way of showing appreciation for the invitation and your bottle will promptly be placed with those others have brought. But if it’s a more formal do, or you want to leave it to your host’s discretion to open your bottle or consider it a gift, then put your bottle in one those gift bags and make sure it has a tag on it that says it’s from you. That way if it does get put aside for the evening, it can be connected with you later.

Scenario A: Party thrower knows a lot about wine, you don’t. Everyone in this situation thinks they’re doomed, but that’s not true. Though yes the wine world is full of label-chasers, most wine lovers aren’t people who would refuse to drink a $15 wine. They’re just people who try 18 times harder to find the great $15 bottles. Or $30, or $50—name the price point, there’s someone who won’t spend less. So, think unusual. ‘Unusual’ to most wine lovers means small production (aka ‘boutique’) wines and new vintages of well-known wines that are just off the boat. Your wine seller will be able to point out several that will please and impress.

If you’re shy and just want to grab and run, select the most expensive German riesling (white) or Spanish Priorat (a red) in your price bracket. When you hand it to your host, say something like, “I’ve been reading that _______ are the darlings of the wine world these days.” You’ll have said something absolutely true, and your host will be flattered that you took the trouble to learn this.

Scenario B: The party is a sit-down dinner and you don’t know what they’re serving so wine matching is out of the question. Make a Scenario A choice and gift-bag it. Or take a bubbly, the all-purpose gift wine.

Although its not true with all categories of wine, with French champagne it is fairly true that the more you spend the better the wine, and it’s hard to find vintage-dated offerings under $40. In that $40-50 price range some of the ‘hot’ names are Jacquesson, Egly-Oriet and Duval. Non-vintage (meaning the producer blends several past vintages to make the best tasting cuvee) Nicholas Feuillante at around $25 is both excellent and affordable, and frankly better than most similarly priced French options like Moet’s White Star.

If you prefer to stay domestic, at the higher end (high $20’s), California’s Schramsberg and Iron Horse wineries both offer sparkling wines that wine lovers recognize as excellent quality. If you’re on a budget, Italian Prosecco, Spanish Cava, Lucien Albrecht from Alsace and Gruet from New Mexico (yes, New Mexico!) are terrific in-the-know choices at under $15.

One more word about dinner parties: If your bottle does not get opened, try not to let your feelings be hurt. I took a rather expensive, one-of-a-kind bottle to a stand-around kind of Christmas party in California last year, one that I had purchased myself on a trip to Australia and believed ready enough to drink. That is, after all, why I selected it and shipped it ahead along with several other wines to be shared that weekend (wine people do this, ship wine in advance to avoid something we call travel-shock). My hosts, however, took one look at the vintage date on this bottle, declared it “not ready” and banished it to their cellar. And though yes, I felt they should have known that I wouldn’t have sent a wine I didn’t think ready to drink, I let it go because friends are more important than any one bottle. And I cannot argue that the wines I drank instead of the wine I brought were anything less than wonderful. So if you end up in my situation, bite your lip and content yourself with the knowledge that your bottle will give a lot of joy to someone you care about some day.

Scenario C: It’s a big party and it probably won’t matter what you bring, but you don’t want to bring something boring. Think Scenario A or B, or decide that if you can’t be brilliant, you can be funny. Ever since a French syrah named Fat Bastard starting flying off shelves in London and New York, eye-catching labels with ear-catching names have multiplied like rabbits. Depending on the message you want to convey, a wine with a name like 47-Pound Rooster, Royal Bitch, Mad Housewife, or, speaking of rabbits, Bad Bunny (from Bellingham’s own Chuckanut Ridge Wine Company) might be your ticket to popularity.

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Jenise Stone is a wine enthusiast and avid foodie who lives in Birch Bay, Washington. She can be reached by emailing wine@tasteofseattle.com.

(11-30-2005)

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