All of the following are from Samples:

The holidaze are upon us: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Birthday (yes, some of us have that thrown in for good measure), Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year… They’re all relevant, as is wine, to many of December’s cultures celebrating these festive days. I’ve come to realize, December means that every single one of us, celebrating these holidays, takes on a part time job, on top of everything else we’re doing in December. It can be exhausted just thinking of it, and this is only December 4. Perhaps this list will help you make some decisions. All prices are listed, so match your gift against your budget, and away we go.

Moving on with great excitement, I’ve been receiving some great #samples of wine items related to gift giving. So, I’m sharing them for all of you as a holiday gift-giving shopping list, who might be wondering what to get for that special person who loves wine:

Here’s a gift for you, for starters, and for you to share with everyone you know.

The Color of Wine app ~ This one is free, just go to this link for your FREE download

The coloring craze has cycled back from our hippie-dippie days, and I know why. All you need to do is go to the Apple Store and download Color of Wine: iPhone now, Android in early 2018. Did I mention it’s FREE? You do need to register with Facebook, to save or share your work, don’t forget. And, there are over 300 colors that you can choose! I’ve tried it and it was a blast from the past.

• Wine & Wine founder Julie Brosterman, in an interview with  says the philosophy behind Color of Wine is to invite men and women to experience, relax and de-stress with the app while enjoying their daily glass of wine. “The benefits of coloring – and the enormous popularity of mobile coloring apps – shows us that we can connect with wine consumers while they enjoy coloring their favorite wine brands and images. We ask a lot from the consumer when we want them to view countless promotions via social media. I think we are all suffering from a kind of ‘social fatigue’. Color of Wine lets people feel the love. Color of Wine was developed to show consumers how much we want them to be happy and engaged while they are enjoying a glass of wine (or two) at the end of the day. Coloring is meditative and mindful – and easy to do. When the company first looked into mobile as a fast-growing social platform, I was stunned by the popularity of mobile coloring apps – 25 million downloads for Colorfy, the top mobile coloring app.”
• See the fun and how to on bottom of this post, for the YouTube Video.

Wine Buyer’s Record Book from Board and Bench Publishing ~ $5.97

This 5 x 7″ book, ISBN 9780932664983, usually ships within 3-5 days

• Written by Ralph Steadman, it has 64 pages of color illustrations. “Internationally celebrated cartoonist Ralph Steadman provides a handy and humorous little book to keep track of your wine tasting experiences, your cellar stock, and other vinous notes. Steadman’s whimsical art decorates the book in full-color, providing a chuckle as you make your notes.
• It’s a great stocking stuffer, and very affordable. On sale right now from $ 9.95 – $ 5.97. (I’m not sure how long the sale will last, so take advantage as soon as possible, I’d say.)

Spirale Wine Glasses by Vacanti ~ Upgrade your wine experience. The package of two costs $50.00

These wine glasses are totally charming, while also creating an important and fun function that was yet to be designed. It’s an invention that’s been a long time coming. We just enjoyed a 1971 Margaux. If we hadn’t been under mandatory evacuation during the California fires, I would have driven home for my Spirales. Yeah, it was one of those moments. Sounds awfully geeky, but sediment is sediment, right?

• Dishwasher safe…
• See the little cork screw at the bottom of the glass? As Vacanti states, would you rather spend your time savoring or not straining your wine? Well, with these very special glasses, you no longer need to strain or filter the sediment from your red wines. You simply pour, drink, and enjoy to the last sip. Spirale has revolutionized the wine drinking experience.
• This is for those of you who enjoy wines that haven’t been filtered or fined (like I love them).  You’ll occasionally get some sediment and this glass captures it all.
• Margarita and Patrick Vacanti state, “A captivating design. Our elegant hand-blown design is a perfect fusion of form and function. As sediment settles to the bottom of the glass, the spiral in the stem separates it from the wine. Our patented feature keeps the sediment at bay, even while tilting your glass to enjoy the wine.

Loma Living Wine Rack ~ Sold right now for $60 (was $75), and free shipping in the US. (Great benefit.)

This 8-bottle wine rack with dark finish has been created for the minimalist. A tiny house is a perfect spot for this wine rack, or just a tiny kitchen. For me, a space on a kitchen wall would work wonders. Loma Living shows their bottles on a vertical hang, where my picture needs to be turned counter clockwise in a 45 degree angle, so you “get it.”

• Loma Living creates minimalist home storage for bikes, wine, and more. The designs and crafting are all made in Philadelphia, USA. On their Wine and Bar page, prices range from $25 to $75, and everything is 25 percent off through Christmas., and free shipping. If you’ve got a wine and wood lover, this company is your new best friend.
• The color of wood, for each item, also varies from dark to natural finishes.

Boutique Wine Club ~ Wines chosen are all 90 Point wines

I received a sample shipment from this wine club, and it was their Santa Barbara Club sampler box. (Sampler is six bottles of 375 ml sized bottles.)

• If you give this gift, you’ll also have a choice of the Paso Robles Club
• Or, a combination of Santa Barbara and Paso wines combined club

• The wines in this Santa Barbara pack contains the following:
  • • Stolpman Winery 2016 Estate Grown Syrah
  • Larner Winery 2017 Santa Barbara County Rosé
  • Carr Winery 2016 Cab Franc Santa Ynez Valley
  • Blair Fox Cellars 2016 Petite Sirah Santa Barbara County
  • Andrew Murray E11even Wines 2016 Chenin Blanc
  • Badge 2016 Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County
• The deal
  • 12 Bottles/Year Ships 6 Bottles 2x/year
  • $130-180/shipment + Shipping + Tax
• About the club
  • Always Free Membership
  • Always Flat Rate Shipping
  • Cancel Anytime
  • Tasting Guide Included in Every Shipment
  • Don’t like it? Return for something new
  • Lowest Price Guarantee
  • Extended Family Opportunities
  • Free Wine Tastings at all Club Wineries
  • 20 Percent Savings on Private Wine Tours
  • Reorder Only the Bottles You Love

Compressor Wine Cooler by NewAir, a 29 bottle rack ($829.95)

This is the big one, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is the one that you hold back, like my parents did to me, when it was my first bicycle. That was the Christmas that my prayers weren’t answered, when I kept praying for snow, so it would be a white one. Then, I got “why,” if that was all truly possible. As it turned out, I got in 10 great days of biking, before the snow finally came and I had to wait for Spring in May… About May in Maine, I’d say, when I could get back out there.

• With this one, no one has to wait for anything, just get that packaging out of the way, some warm soap and water, dry it, plug it in, and begin to load it. Let the snow flakes fall.

• The great part of this wine fridge is it’s streamlined construction. This one, as slim as it is, can hold up to 29 bottles of wine. When you first look at the shelves, you think, “What? Only five levels, and I’m counting three across, so what am I missing here?” What I was missing, for a few minutes, is that the shelves pull out for more loading. The depth of the shelves allows for five across, not three, in an up and down placement. All you have to do is move the front bottles to the back, and viola! Five on each shelf. This is the best convenient storage unit going.
• A few days before this beauty came into my life, I had been longing for a wine fridge, where I could store arriving wine samples, right next to my desk, instead of all over the house. I was queried, I said yes, and delivery happened in the blink of an eye. I thanked NewAir for reading my mind, as you can well imagine.  #AWR-290DB-B, life just got real!

DISCLAIMER: Wine-Blog is a journal of my PR wine activities and learnings. 1) I occasionally write stories about wine clients, but don’t charge them for that time. 2) All wine reviews originate from free samples, sent by PR people representing the brands. 3) Images are mostly mine, some are purchased, a few rare ones are part of fair trade usage.