• About
  • Indiana Wineries
  • Michigan Wineries
  • Wisconsin Wineries

Howard W. Hewitt

~ … The "W" stands for wine!

Howard W. Hewitt

Tag Archives: Ron Miller

Gifting Wine for the Holidays

09 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by Howard in Holidays, Newspaper Column 2016, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christmas giving, Cork and Cracker, giving wine for Christmas, hoiday wine, Ron Miller

Christmas gifts, holiday parties, and New Years are always occasions for a great gift of a good bottle of wine.

Gifting wine during the holidays is as much of a tradition as lighting the Menorah, decorating the tree, or singing the seasonal songs.

grape-sense-logoBut giving a friend, boss, or client a bottle of wine doesn’t come without some trepidation. Since beginning the column, now more than eight years ago, I’ve often tried to take a journalistic approach to Grape Sense. I’ve written recommendation columns and will do so again.

But to talk holiday giving I asked friend and wine retailer Ron Miller, owner of Cork and Cracker near Broad Ripple in Indianapolis. Ron’s shop is one you should wish was near you. He has hundreds of choices under $20 and two walls of wine at higher price points.

He’s used to getting the holiday gift question. “Oh yes, we get it a lot this time of year,” Miller said. “We get questions for a lot of corporate gifts where someone is giving to clients so they don’t know what they’re going to want so we stick to Cabernet or Pinot Noir or if its white more standard items like Chardonnay.”

ron-miller

Ron Miller

Whether It’s a gift for a friend, a client or your boss price point matters if you’re trying to impress. “What we get a lot is they want to get a name brand the recipient is going to recognize,” Miller said. “But we don’t buy based on names but we do have some well–known labels. If they’re in the price point, we’ll give them a name the recipient will recognize.

“But we don’t carry Silver Oak and Caymus, those are some labels a lot of people will ask for because ‘they’ll know how much I’ve spent.’”

If it’s a bottle for a friend or to take to that party, it gets a little simpler. “First we ask what kind of price point do they want to be in and do they know what their friend likes,” Miller said. “We always get the price point. if they know what their friend likes we try to match up something that we think they will like. If they’re not sure we kind of stick with the standard Cabs, Chardonnay, and Pinots.”

It’s safe to say the advice probably wouldn’t be much different at any other reputable wine store. But it’s better, I think, hearing from someone who sells wine for a living.

I’d end by echoing Ron’s advice. If you have any doubt go the safe route with a Cabernet, Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. I’ll do what Ron won’t though and suggest you get up to at least the $20 price point for good quality wine.

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • Huber’s – Not just about wine anymore
  • Where have the all the biscuits gone?
  • Just what is a ‘bad wine?’

Grape Sense on Instagram

Have you met Karen? She works mid week mornings at the shop and is reminding everyone to join us for Saturday Sipps this weekend. We will be pouring the popular Auntsfield Sauv Blanc, another new Rose, and a Pinot noir from the Loire Valley! It all begins at 11 AM through the afternoon
Very mixed thoughts about an unplanned visit to Nonna’s Italian Italian in Plainfield just off I 70 from last night. Unexpectedly stuck in town for a couple of hours thought I would try it out it’s an odd set up where you have to order at the register. Calamari was great my salad was great the lasagna was good except for some odd white sauce top of the marinara which was delicious the white sauce was congealed and tasted bitter… The home-baked roll was delicious… The glass of Gabbiano Chianti was OK well I paid 1150 for a glass that sells for eight bucks … total bill $36 for those items which I thought was a little high mostly the wine cost. Service seem confused and disjointed but they were all very pleasant I’d probably give it a second chance not sure
Join Curt and I Saturday at the Wine Shop for Saturday Sipps. We will be pouring an unusual and delicious Austrian Rose, Italian Vermentino, and Sicilian red! Of course, all three 20 percent off Saturday only!
New coffee shop in Greenwood! Paul Jacquin, in photo, owner of Vino Villa has opened up Cafe Euclid in small house behind the wine shop and restaurant! Lovely patio for outdoor seating and good coffee!

Categories

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,651 other followers

Howard’s Wine Ratings

"Very Highly Recommended" - Drop everything and rush out to buy this wine!

"Highly Recommended" - Wine is varietally correct, well made, great balance, a must buy!

"Recommended" - Good wine and a good value. Not spectacular but a solid choice.

"Not Recommended" - Run the other direction.

Wine Travel Photos

My Magazine Stories

Friend Me On …

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Archives

My Summer With Lymphoma: Lymphoma, My Stem Cell Transplant

Good news on cancer and eyes

I have failed miserably at keeping ‘the cancer blog’ updated – and that’s a good thing, I suppose. I have now been “clean” since my April autologous stem cell transplant. I had a PET scan in June and a CT scan this week (Sept. 11) and both showed negative results. My oncologist was very pleased […]

Decisions, Decisions – Job & Health issues

  It’s been two weeks since my last update, one week-plus since I dropped one of my three antibiotics, and 97 days since my stem cell transplant for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.   So there are a few things to update and a few thoughts to share. Let’s start with the cancer. My team of oncologists at […]

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Howard W. Hewitt
    • Join 3,651 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Howard W. Hewitt
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: