For all of my talk about not digging big-ass wines, I sure do seem to end up talking about a lot of “good” big-ass wines.

Take this past Christmas, for example.

We host some of my wife’s family every third Christmas or so, as part of a rotation that has us visiting them in Florida and Washington on the other years. It’s a special time for me, because Mrs. Dudette has a great extended family, full of genuinely nice people who are kind enough to put up with me over the course of several days (primarily because they want to spend time with my daughter, I suspect… but I’m quite happy to settle for the delusion that they also enjoy my company). And when we host Christmas, Mrs. Dudette cooks a gourmet meat-and-potatoes feast in honor of her late grandmother, who succumbed to Alzheimer’s quite a few years ago but in her heyday apparently made a mean roast dinner.

The slow-roasted meat naturally gets me thinking about a big red, and for some reason, despite reservations, I find myself continually reaching for Mondavi Reserve wines for this holiday dinner thang. I mean, if Christmas dinner isn’t when you’re supposed to open up wines like these, then well the hell are you supposed to pop those corks?

I use the term “despite reservations” because, truth be told (don’t you hate that phrase, by the way? I mean, it’s not like I’ve been lying to you for years and am only now getting aroud to making statements with any veracity… ok, whatever…) I am always afraid that the Mondavi Reserve wines are going to burn me…

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…wine from “someplace else.”

On the hook for giving a wine geek a holiday gift this season? Here’s some advice for ya.

Skip the books.

Skip the gimmicky wine gizmos that take up way more kitchen drawer space than they’re worth in actually, tired-and-true utility (trust me on this one, I get samples of all of that sh*z and most of it isn’t worth the amount of air molecules it displaces in your home).

Skip all of it.

You really want to make an impression on your wine lover’s holiday season? Then don’t give him/her/it something that they’ll probably never actually use. Give ‘em something that they’ll drink, and will remember for a long time to come.

Give them something truly different: give ‘em wine from an off-the-well-trodden-path wine region…

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I hope you’ll forgive the ‘holiday card” style indulgence, but there’s no stemming the power of the “proud papa” syndrome, is there?

Wishing you and yours a safe, jolly, and wine-and-wonder-filled holiday!

Cheers!

Ok, peeps – just in time (and plenty of it) for the holidays, we’ve got another giveaway coming at ya!

This week, one lucky commenter will be selected at random to win a pretty spiffy personalized wine gift box (a $45 retail value) from www.personalizedwineboxes.com!

Pictured at left, these wine gift boxes look pretty darn spiffy, and could make a very nice edition to your holiday gift list ( even if, like me, you primarily considered something like this a gift to yourself… you selfish little thing, you…).

Anyway…

Here’s the deal: In one week, I will randomly select a winner from the comments who will be able to design their own personalized wine box! The only catch being that you need to live in the U.S. (I’ve also been asked to add the disclaimer “wine not included” – but if you couldn’t figure that one out on your own then you have problems deeper than can be solved with wine alone).

Our comment topic? What’s the coolest ‘wine gift’ you’ve ever received?  Shout ‘em out!

To get us started here’s my pick…

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