If you’re going to buy me a wine gift this Christmas….

Dear Santa

At risk of appearing just like my kids, rifling through the Argos catalogue, cutting out the photos of plastic toys and sticking them on to a crumpled piece of paper covered in Pritt Stick a.k.a their Christmas lists, I was wondering if you might accept the following requests of my own …you know, ‘if” you were thinking about buying me any wine gifts this Christmas… after all, I’ve been a good girl this year.

1) A bottle of wine

My stocking is the perfect size and shape, but perhaps your elves worry that they’ll choose something that I won’t like/ think is a bit naff. If you’re reading this, Dear Elves, please don’t be concerned. Any red from a Languedoc AOC, say Saint-Chinian, Faugeres, Terrasses du Larzac, Corbieres, Pic St Loup, Minervois (that should be enough to go on) should be just fine, although I’d be very pleased if Santa’s pockets are deep enough to stretch to a bottle of Condrieu or Cote Rotie perhaps – after all, there’s no harm done if I already have one.

2) Wine Paraphenalia

Santa,  you really have given me quite enough already, so, unless you’re thinking of buying me a pair of Riedel Sommeliers Hermitage glasses, please, if you can, stick to 1) or 3), it’d be much appreciated.

3) Wine Books

I’m sure that you’ll be lining up at least one of these for my stocking, so please choose wisely. Of course, the latest edition of Jancis Robinson’s  The Oxford Companion to Wine has just been released, but although I’d be very grateful, please don’t worry about weighing your sleigh down with a copy as it will only remind me how I should undoubtedly be reading it in preparation for my Diploma exams in January, rather than drinking its subject matter.

Believe it or not Santa, I once thought about writing a wine book and then I started to read the most entertaining  The Knackered Mother’s Wine Club and realised that Helen McGinn had got there first and done a much better job than I ever could. So, as you now know, I already have a treasured copy (or multiple) of that one.

But if you don’t mind Santa, a book that I really, really would like, after following Madeline Puckette’s ‘Wine Folly’ Facebook and Twitter feeds for many a month, please can I have a copy of her newly published Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine. That I think would be the best Christmas 2015 wine gift that a girl could wish for, no matter how much she already knows (especially alongside the Cote Rotie and Riedel glasses!).

Cheers

Jo