“The Pleasure Principle in Wine Giving,” an article from a recent issue of the LA Times.
Discussing wine as gifts – both business and personal, the stigma of price, and an “obligation towards deliciousness.”
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As you look back on the year, you’ve probably had a glass of wine that’s bonked you squarely in the pleasure center and made you say, “Sweet Lord, now I’m in trouble,” or at the very least, “Whoa, there’s more to this stuff than I thought.” We’ve become a culture that is routinely snared in wine’s prodigious, transformative powers. Not only do we delight in sampling as many bottlings as we can, we’re buying the books, attending the tastings, filling the wine bars and pestering the sommeliers. We don’t just drink wine; we’re engaged by it.
That engagement is certainly something worth sharing, which is why, more than ever, it makes sense to give wine as a holiday gift. Of course, your average wine gift is rarely an average wine. On the other hand, neither does it have to be too expensive or froufrou. Indeed, there are worthy bottles at every price point that fill the bill for any recipient, from office-mates to bedmates, from bosses to mothers-in-law. And if you take as your baseline that wine that bonked you to begin with, you’ll be in better shape than you think.
For bosses and associates
When it comes to the wine you give to a boss or business associate, so often the selection has less to do with what’s in the bottle and more with what it says on the label, how it looks, how it makes you look, what it signifies and what it costs. You may like the person, you may not, but in this case you have to pretend that you do, sometimes elaborately.
For this reason, the wine gift in business is usually fraught with baggage surrounding price. It isn’t enough to give something good; the bottle has to also be extravagant enough that you don’t appear cheap. Sadly, this ignores the fact that a wine’s price often has little to do with its potential to please someone.
Those of you who need to spend $150 on a Napa Cabernet, be my guest. But why not spend that same buck and a half on two or three well-selected bottles? …
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Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
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