I am meeting my son's fiance's mother Christmas day and would like to take a nice bottle of wine as a hostess gift. I do not know what kind of wine she likes. Suggestions for a nice bottle of red and white wine in the under $100 range would be much appreciated.

I would try to find out what she likes first.

For wines over $20 a bottle I really like are Kendall Jackson and Frogs Leap. I only drink red wine so I can’t help with white wine, but I am sure their white wine is good.

Kendall Jackson’s Stature line of wine is amazing, but they are $80-$100 per bottle.

Caymus or Silver Oak

If she like Chardonnay with a bit of oak, you can’t go wrong with Flowers or Far Niente.

For Christmas Day, a desert wine would be a good choice. My preference is a 10 yo tawny port. Taylor Fladgate or Dow’s. My grocery has both of them for $35/bottle, regular price. Not tart, not sweet, but oaky. My favorite red wine, by far.

If she likes red - I second the idea of Caymus Cabernet.

I took my wine advice from our old dear friend JALLEN.
His recommendation was DUCKHORN.

Every time I take a sip of Duckhorn I can't help but remember him.
Works for me.

My favorite red is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Penfold’s, an Australian vintner.
Their merlot or cab/Shiraz blends are pretty good as well.

Not much help on white wines.

I used to pick up the Penfold’s at Costco

Try a Clos du Val red & white, should keep you under $100.

There are not a lot of people (as far as I know) who drink $100 wine with any frequency. You don’t want to overspend any more than underspend. JohnV mentioned Silver Oak, a really nice Cab that’s about $60 around here.

Concha y Toro from Chile makes some great wines like Marques de Casa Concha. They also make the superb Don Melchor that will push your upper limit. If your a member of Costco, and your store sells wines, get help from their wine consultant. You should be able to get both a very nice red and a white for $70 that will impress without being pretentious.

quote:

Originally posted by Rotndad:
Suggestions for a nice bottle of red and white wine in the under $100 range would be much appreciated.

$100 total or $100 each?

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
I took my wine advice from our old dear friend JALLEN.
His recommendation was DUCKHORN.

Every time I take a sip of Duckhorn I can't help but remember him.
Works for me.

^^ THIS ^^

Duckhorn is outstanding, but their Cabernet Sauvignon is a little pricey (similar price to Silver Oak or Caymus and every bit as good).

JALLEN also recommended their sister winery, Decoy, which will run you about $45 total for a bottle of pinot noir and a bottle of chardonnay. For the past 2.5 years, I nearly always have several bottles of Decoy in my wine rack. If you don't know what she likes you could show up with 4 bottles of Decoy (e.g. Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc) and it'd be slightly under $100 total.

Another option are two Central Coast California wineries I toured this summer:

Justin. Isosceles is a bordeaux blend as is what their Central Coast winery was created for. They've taken it to competitions in France and beat French Bordeaux. Their 2015 is outstanding and it'll run you approx. $72.

J Lohr. Their 2016 Late Harvest Riesling is excellent and will run you approx. $25.

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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!

For an every day wine, La Crema is very good and doesn't cost much. Rombauer is good.

Silver Oak is really good, you're looking in the roughly $100-ish range. Unless you've got $$$ to burn, it's an excellent wine for special occasions, not daily. It's good stuff!

Total Wine store can recommend wines for about every occasion and price.

A very safe choice in red is a blend. "Bordeaux" style or "Meritage" offer a flavorful mixture of two to four varietals.

You can also find white "bordeaux" mixtures.

Often a wine store will have rankings on bottles from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and a couple of well-known evaluators. If you focus on over 90 points, and within your price range, your recipient will be happy, I'm sure.

I’ve had far more expensive wines but I’ve yet to find one I enjoy more that the Stag’s Leap Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon. Incredibly smooth and flavorful. An added bun is, if you over-imbibe, almost no hangover.

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Hostess gift wines I’d be looking at <$30 a bottle, which is still plenty good.

For red, I’d suggest a Russian River locale Pinot Noir, La Crema, Bearboat, and Rodney Strong come to mind.

For white, I can’t do CA Chardonnay. French White Burgandy is my preference. These come from different villages. Bottles from “Premier Cru” are better known, at a premium price usually, but not always a better flavor. Typically well known options are Pouilly Fuisse and Chablis. High end is Chassagne and Puligny Montrachet (~$40 - 50 / bottle). I really like white burgundies from the Rully area.

Rombauer chardonnay; Turley or Biale zinfandel. For a budget stretch, anything from Daou.

Christmas? Go with champagne. Veuve Clicquot is a nice choice.

Prisoner is an amazing red blend for about 40$. My mom only likes whites aand after I got her a bottle, it is her new favorite wine. Have yet to have someone not be pleased with it.