The Best Wine For Gifting, According To An Award-Winning Sommelier

A bottle of wine makes for a great gift, but you may not know the best one to buy to impress the recipient. To find out what we need to know about gifting wine, Daily Meal spoke with an expert: Doreen Winkler, the founder of Orange Glou, a wine store in New York City (which has a subscription service that you can take advantage of). Winkler, who was named one of America's Top Sommeliers by Forbes, says, "The same tips for buying wine for yourself apply to buying wine as a gift: Have an idea of the recipient's taste, and know your budget."

Ideally, you're shopping for a friend or family member with whom you socialize, so you should have some knowledge about their tastes. Even if you don't specifically know what wine they like, there are still ways to gauge their preferences. For example, if they have a sweet tooth, you might want to have the wine seller recommend a dessert wine or a wine with sweeter notes.

Doreen Winkler says if you don't know their tastes, there's still an option. "When in doubt, go with sparkling wine." After all, sparkling wine is fun and festive, so it makes sense to gift it for a holiday or some other kind of celebration.

If you don't already know the difference between champagne, prosecco, and sparkling wine, you can start there. Again, try to gauge what your friend or family member might like based on what you know about their food preferences. Some sparkling wine varieties are much sweeter than others, so knowing how much they like dessert or candy can go a long way in choosing the right sparkling wine. If they don't have a sweet tooth, there are sparkling wines that lean dry.

But whether or not you know anything about the recipient's taste, you may want to visit your local wine shop and ask a sales associate which sparkling wines are best sellers or which they recommend as gifts. You can also check out our list of 20 sparkling wines for the holidays, which make for the perfect gifts.