Best gifts for wine lovers, from vino subscriptions to wine tasting for two

If you really want to avoid buying wine itself, this is a great original choice. A wine journal that comes in dark red, midnight blue or sand, it’s an oenophile’s dream and makes a lovely present. Inside, there are all sorts of useful guides and tips including advice on how to taste and serve wine, how to read a wine label and a list of over 100 recommended wine bars worldwide. There’s a space to record a wine wish list of vinos to try and wine recommendations so they can discover something new too.

Most importantly, there are over 140 pages where they can keep track of any wines they taste – including whether they’d drink them again – so they can always track down their favourite. Printed and bound in London, it’s a thoughtful but useful gift they’ll love to keep forever.

It’s not easy to make a wine-themed gift look festive but this oversized cracker ticks all the boxes. With no extra wrapping required, the cracker is filled with three cans of organic wine all produced by family-owned vineyards in Sicily, that are part of a co-operative that guarantees fair pay to the growers.

There’s a pale rosé made from 100 per cent syrah grapes, a crisp, citrus-infused white made from catarrato grapes and a fruit-forward red which blends nero d’avola and frappato. Each can – and the outer cracker – is fully recyclable and the price includes carbon-offset shipping so there are no hidden extra costs at checkout. It’s the perfect Secret Santa gift – especially as it will actually be used rather than thrown straight in the bin by Boxing Day.

Treat someone to a Michelin-star quality experience in their own home with this high-end subscription that promises wines to wow. Letterbox-sized tasting boxes are delivered monthly, can be cancelled at any time and include either three or six 100ml servings of wine, all from bottles that cost between £20 and £35 each.

Each one is exceptional. We sampled the fresh but complex Albert Bichot mâcon milly-lamartine 2019 from Burgundy and the powerful, full-bodied Thelema cabernet sauvignon 2019, packed with notes of blackcurrant and dark chocolate. Our favourite was the oak-aged Lauverjat Moulin Des Vrillères sancerre rouge 2021, a light, ruby-red rich in red berry flavours and supple tannins. Better still, each box comes with an invite to join a monthly online tasting session held by master sommelier Christopher Delalonde, which really makes this subscription a fine wine lover’s dream this Christmas.

Anyone who really knows wine knows about Zalto glasses. Handblown in Austria, this tall, paper-thin glass is renowned as the sommelier’s preferred choice and is used in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. It’s even appeared in TV series Succession as the wealthy Roy family’s go-to glass.

Though Zalto makes a whole range of glasses to suit every drink, the universal is the best all-rounder which can be used for any type of wine. So light and thin, we panicked that it would shatter at any second and felt extremely nervous about drinking from it but were stunned by the way this glass transformed our wine. The glass felt like it almost disappeared as we sipped so that nothing interfered with the wine’s flavours and complexities. Even the most ordinary plonk seemed to taste better. This s a dream come true for someone who really values fine wine, although the fragile glass might not be best suited to those prone to clumsiness.

Serious wine fans like every glass to be served in tip-top condition. But not everyone wants to finish the whole bottle every time it’s opened. If you have cash to splash, this is the perfect solution that will revolutionise any dedicated drinker’s life by ensuring they won’t have to save those special bottles and can enjoy a glass whenever they fancy.

This is no standard wine stopper though. Incredibly, it allows the user to pour a glass of wine without actually pulling the cork so they can come back to it again months – or even years! – later. We were a little apprehensive so tried the appliance on a cheaper bottle first but found it simple to use – just remember this system only works on still, cork-sealed wines. It clamps to the top of the bottle, then a needle goes through the cork allowing you to pour normally. When removed, the cork reseals naturally so the wine will be as good as new next time.

Just bear in mind that the argon gas capsule inside which powers the system will only allow you to pour up to 15 glasses before it needs replacing – which does incur an ongoing cost. However, we loved the fact that we could switch between white and red without worrying about wasting the bottle, and yet, we noticed no deterioration at all in either wine after more than a week. It’s a real wine wonder.

There are few better wine-related gifts than a box of top-notch bottles arriving regularly on the doorstep. The Wanderlust Wine Club has a membership for every keen wine drinker, so you can decide how much you want to spend and tailor the deliveries to suit the recipient. Silver membership is the most affordable and includes four bottles of red, white and sparkling wines every two months. These come with a really useful book of tasting notes and food pairing ideas, and a free ticket to a tasting event. Plus, the subscription has no minimum term, so you cancel at any time – even after one box.

The gold membership costs £116 per shipment and includes eight bottles every two months, while they’ll receive ten bottles of exclusive and rare vinos every two months on the pricey platinum option for £200 per shipment. We were genuinely wowed by the wine too, which included a selection of organic and biodynamic wines from innovative producers and emerging regions. Stand-out bottles were the juicy Vina Vieja garnacha, a surprisingly fruity pinot noir from Pierres Dorées and a wonderfully complex beaujolais made in Lyon’s first-ever urban winery. Sign them up for this and you’ll score major brownie points that will last long after Christmas.

One thing you can guarantee a wine lover will always use is a corkscrew. But as it’s Christmas, don’t even consider giving them a bog standard one to chuck in their kitchen drawer. This one will seriously raise their bottle opening game. Available in dark carbon grey or the gleaming ridged silver we tested, it’s so chic they’ll want to leave this corkscrew on the kitchen counter.

It couldn’t be easier to use either, even if they struggle with mobility in their hands. Simply press the corkscrew to the top of the bottle and it does the rest – we especially liked the oddly satisfying way it automatically pushes the cork out afterwards. There’s a foil cutter included and a wire for recharging, but it should open 80 bottles on a single charge. Trust us, it’s the wine gift they don’t even know they want.

Warm white wine is always a no-no. End it for good by gifting someone this smart gunmetal grey cooler that keeps wine at fridge temperature for an hour, so they won’t have to keep getting up to refill their glass.

Also available in black, bronze and gold, it’s made from aluminium and needs just five ice cubes to keep wine perfectly chilled. These are added at the bottom of the cooler and the wine is slightly raised above them. This ensures that there’s no contact between the bottle and the ice meaning – rejoice! – it won’t drip water everywhere or be covered in condensation. Better still, the wide internal diameter of 105mm means it can be used for wider champagne bottles too. A cool present all round then.

Any curious wine drinker should love this quirky present that will allow them to host a mini wine tasting experience in their own home. Each kit comes with five 100ml bottles of organic, vegan, and minimal intervention wines, plus remarkably detailed and informative tasting cards for each wine.

The current kit we tested is designed to be paired with typical Christmas Day food, but wannabe sommeliers will be thrilled to try it any time. It contains two reds, two whites and one rosé which the notes say should be served with turkey, a cheese board, a seafood starter, and vegetarian dishes – plus there’s one to sip in front of the fire after the washing up. Our favourite was the food-friendly gamay which bursts with red fruit flavours and the bright, floral falerio oris bianco with its tingling, tropical twist.

Buying for a wine-adoring couple? Sort both gifts in one with this wine tasting voucher that entitles them both to attend an evening sampling wines, learning about food matching and picking up tips from an experienced sommelier.

Held at six locations around the country on selected weekday evenings throughout the year, the session includes advice on correct tasting, wine regions and the differences between grapes and production methods. It’s a friendly but very informative evening any wine drinker will enjoy, even if they’re not wine-tasting beginners. Better still, if they really don’t fancy it – or live too far from the tasting locations – they can swap the voucher for any other of the same value from Red Letter Days, making this a risk-free gift we’d be delighted to receive ourselves.

A bottle of bubbles always goes down well, especially at Christmas. This one makes it a little more special as you can add up to three lines of text on the neck label, so the lucky recipient knows you went the extra mile when buying for them.

If they can bear to pop the cork, they’re in for a real treat too. This is Chapel Down’s award-wining English sparkling wine that’s every bit as good as any bottle of champers and is perfect served chilled on its own as a Christmas Day aperitif. Made from chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier and a touch of pinot blanc, it’s beautifully crisp with refined notes of apple and citrus on the palate, a distinctive floral flourish and an elegant finish that will add a sparkle to any festive celebration.

Dedicated white wine fans will be over the moon to unwrap this generous case of vino, knowing they’ll love every single bottle. It comes from the team behind Bar Douro, which has two London restaurants serving traditional Portuguese food and sells the UK’s biggest and best selection of Portuguese wines. It’s particularly well suited to anyone keen to sample new grapes or discover smaller producers – or even anyone who loves spending holidays in Portugal.

The whole case is a great introduction to the country’s wines, and we loved tasting bottles we had never tried before. We were particularly intrigued by the tropical, flavour-packed fernão pires from Tejo, a textured citrus-rich white straight from the mountains of Dão and the fruity, elegant bottle of implicit from Alentejo, which zings with ripe stone fruit and fresh floral undertones. It’s also worth noting that all-red and mixed cases are available instead if preferred (or if you want to treat yourself too…).

We realise that a pack of tablets aren’t exactly a standard Christmas gift but bear with us. This food supplement is touted as a hangover prevention pill and contains a mix of high-performing bacteria, l-cysteine, and vitamin B12, following over 30 years of research.

It’s said to help break down alcohol more quickly before it reaches the liver to ease those dreaded next day side effects – though it’s important to note that the makers warn that Myrkl should never be used as an excuse to drink more. We were sceptical when we took two tablets two hours before a night out drinking red wine as instructed but were entirely converted after waking up the next day feeling curiously fresh and without even a trace of the hangover we had feared. So, though you may get a funny look when they first tear the wrapping paper off this gift, we reckon it could be the best present they find under the tree this year.