Gift Guide

Best Luxury Wine Gifts for the Holidays

5 bottles over $150 that are genuinely worth giving

A luxury bottle is one of the few gifts that gets better the longer the recipient waits to use it — but only if you choose well. Price alone is a poor guide: plenty of expensive wine is expensive for its label, and some of the greatest bottles in the world are not ready to drink for years. Every wine here was tasted blind by our panel and scored 96 points or higher, and each one comes with a note on when it should actually be opened, which is worth writing on the gift tag. Two practical points before you order: US wine shipping rules vary by state, so check that the retailer can deliver to the recipient's address; and order by mid-December, because carriers will not leave wine on a doorstep — someone over 21 has to sign for it.

1Best Under $20097 pts • Calistoga, Napa Valley, California

Chateau Montelena Estate

Cabernet Sauvignon • $185

Chateau Montelena is the producer behind the Judgment of Paris, the 1976 blind tasting where California beat France and changed the wine world — a story the recipient will enjoy as much as the wine. The Estate Cabernet is the real thing: cassis, tobacco leaf, cedar and graphite, dense and powerful but poised. 97 points. Its drinking window runs from now to 2045, so it works both for someone who will open it at New Year and for someone who will cellar it. $185.

Buy — $185 Full Review

2For the Patient Collector97 pts • Douro Valley, Portugal

W. & J. Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos The Stone Port 2021

Port • $200

Vintage Port is the classic gift for a collector, and Graham's The Stone Terraces 2021 is a rare one: only the fifth release, from three hectares of hand-built stone terraces at Quinta dos Malvedos. Remarkably fresh blackberry, kirsch and the house's signature mango note, with polished tannins and dark chocolate. It is approachable now but built to age until 2060 — a bottle you can give to celebrate a birth or a wedding and expect to be opened decades later. $200, 97 points.

Buy — $200 Full Review

3For the Italian Wine Lover98 pts • Tuscany, Italy

Antinori Solaia 2020

Tuscan • $265

Antinori's Solaia is one of the original Super Tuscans, and the 2020 is a beauty: wild berries, black cherry and mint over cocoa, licorice and savoury herbs, with velvety tannins and a long graphite finish. Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc, it is the bottle for someone who loves Italian food as much as Italian wine — osso buco and aged Parmigiano are our recorded pairings. Drinkable now after a decant, and ageing to 2045. $265, 98 points.

Buy — $265 Full Review

4The Celebration Bottle97 pts • Champagne, France

Dom Perignon Rose 2009

Champagne • $350

Dom Pérignon needs no introduction, which is exactly what makes it a good gift. The 2009 Rosé is its most food-friendly expression: ripe red berries, blood orange and toasted brioche with saffron, licorice and fig from a warm vintage, full-bodied and fleshy with real mineral tension underneath. Give it to someone with an anniversary or a promotion coming up. It is generous now and will keep evolving through 2035, so there is no wrong time to open it. $350, 97 points.

Buy — $350 Full Review

5Top Pick96 pts • Napa Valley, California

Opus One Red Wine 2022

Bordeaux • $395

Opus One is the most recognisable name in American fine wine, and the 2022 deserves the reputation: blueberry, cassis and dried rose over cigar box and graphite, harmonious red fruit and cocoa on fine-grained tannins, and a long finish of wet stone and coffee. The honest note for the gift tag: its drinking window opens in 2027, so this is a bottle to cellar, not to open on Christmas Day. For a collector, that is the point. $395, 96 points.

Buy — $395 Full Review

The Verdict

For someone who will open it soon, give the Chateau Montelena or the Dom Pérignon Rosé — both are drinking well now and come with stories. For a collector, the Opus One or the Graham's Stone Terraces Port, which will reward years in the cellar. The Solaia sits neatly in between. Whatever you choose, write the drinking window on the card; it is the most useful thing you can add to a bottle of wine.

Get our top pick — Opus One Red Wine 2022 · $395

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