How into wine is the person? What region do they prefer; France, Italian, California, Orgeon, other?

To answer your question, yes, $150 is plenty. They can get a very fine bottle for that amount.

I have a wine collection of right at 1,000 bottles. I started with California bottles, then moved to France, and branched out into Italian and Oregon.

I cannot stand new world wines. For example, gift me with a bottle of Caymus ($80) or Caymus Special Selection ($180) and you might as well just give me a nice thank you card. I would not enjoy those bottles at all. However, at Berns Steakhouse in Tampa, which has the largest wine selection of any restaurant in the US, Caymus is the #1 wine sold.

I prefer old world wine. No filtering, no pesticides, natural tannins, natural fruits, natural colors, etc. This will mean the wine varies from year to year, but that is part of the fun. I can find killer, really amazing bottles for $25-$40. From all of the places I mentioned above. But, it does take a little work. And not everyone's palate is the same, so what I love, you might hate.

But to make it easy, back to what I said up top, $150 is plenty, then they can pick out what they want.

Once you crest $10-20, I have a hard time finding the difference.

I agree…$150 gift card is very generous. We have recently frequented a very good local winery. Even the wine maker himself says that you should never spend more than $50 for a bottle of very nice wine.

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Originally posted by r0gue:

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
A $150 gift card would make a very nice gift for a wine aficionado.

That's the ticket. They may have an amazing favorite that's $30. With that, they can thank you five times!

Yep. I was thinking that would mean 5 bottles to me

Before wine stopped liking me I enjoyed a lot of wines, some that expensive or a even little more, and plenty quite a bit less. There is a point beyond which it may really be worth however much more, but I am not able (well I wasn’t able, now Ijust don’t drink wine) to get that much more out of it.

The real beauty of a $150 gift card is your friend could splurge and get a $150 bottle of wine if they like, or they could get five great thirty dollar bottles of wine, or …

I'm just thinking about all the Mountain Dew I could buy with $150!

The $150 is plenty enough.

When the New Hampshire Liquor Commission has their 15% off twelve or more sale, I can get 6 of the Prosecco by wife likes and 6 of my favorite Malbecs for $150.

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Originally posted by CoolRich59:
You can get some good wine for a very reasonable price. You can also spend big bucks for mediocre wine.

I was at a business dinner with some execs from my company. They all made serious $$ and were talking wine and how much they spent on various bottles.

I finally chimed in and said I was happy with the “Three Buck Chuck” wine I got at Trader Joes. After a pause, one of the execs “admitted” that he drank it too.

I was on a wine tour in Napa and our guide told us how you can get great wine at Traders Joes. He said during wine making they will not use the bottom of the batch due to the sediment. They will sell that off to places like Traders Joes who will filter it out and blend batches. You can actually get a high end wine for cheap.


As to the $150 unless they are a high class wine snobs they will be able to get several bottles for that price.

Since no one has mentioned it, make sure online are OK for the State where your friend lives. There are a few States that don't allow it.

Duckhorn is a solid choice at $50-60 a bottle for cab.

Have you thought about wine of the month club? Makes a good gift. Look forward to the monthly shipment and possibly taste something you’ve never tasted before.
We’ve never liked expensive wines and champagnes. My wife is more of a white wine or rose’. However we discovered Witches brew in Michigan that almost everyone that tries it, loves it! Last visit it was on sale at Krogers for $3.79. Should have bought a couple of cases.

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Originally posted by doublesharp:
"What’s the word? Thunderbird. How’s it sold? Good and cold. What’s the jive? Bird’s alive. What’s the price? Thirty twice.”

Great advertising, but have you ever tasted the stuff? The nose is a little like rubbing alcohol with notes of artificial citrus. The flavor is corn syrup mixed with watery rotgut vodka. Very sweet and also weirdly bitter.

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Originally posted by SIG4EVA:
Once you crest $10-20, I have a hard time finding the difference.

That's me, too. I've had $100 bottles of wine (gifts - I would never spend that on a bottle of wine) and I didn't find them any better than $15-$20 wines. My pallet isn't refined enough to tell the difference anyway, and I'm not a wine snob.

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Originally posted by tatortodd:
$150 is extremely generous.

Yes it is. And yeah, they'd be smart to spend that $150 on two to maybe three quality wines rather than on just one $150 bottle. Above $50, I'm not sure you're really getting much more, at least in regards to taste and quality.

$150 is a perfect amount.
It also is an admission that the easy number of $100 wasn't what you felt was a sufficient number to show your appreciation, so you went above that most intentionally.

Put a nice note with it and you are golden