See also - Four ways to give the gift of wine (and buy local) this holiday season -Three sensational wine cocktails to celebrate the holiday season
Budget-friendly (but still bomb) gifts: You know the feeling: that moment when you realize you've forgotten to buy something for the Secret Santa exchange in your office, or you're headed to a holiday gathering and don't want to show up empty handed. Situations like these call for a gift that proves you made an effort but doesn't cut into the gift-giving dollars you're hoarding for the most important peeps on your list. For less than a $20-spot, scoop up The Waiter's Friend Corkscrew from Le Creuset, the anti-Rabbit wine key that flawlessly opens wine bottles in under two minutes (and doesn't require an entire kitchen drawer to store it), or a set of pro-quality, microfiber polishing cloths from vaunted crystal maker Spiegelau that will have wine glasses looking extra glossy. Clever, cool wine gifts for under $50: Three words: Bacon and wine. Yep, we can hardly think of a more crave-worthy gift (or a better lesson in the magic of wine pairing) for the foodie-hedonist in all of us than The Infinite Monkey Theorem's brilliant Bottles & Bacon gift package. This luscious mashup includes one bottle each of the Denver-based label's Blind Watchmaker red and white offerings, plus a full pound of porky-licious Tender Belly bacon, all tied up with a bow for $40. Three more words? Yum and done. Alternatively, but no less impressively, give the gift of *not* getting a DUI to anyone on your list who loves to party with an Uber gift certificate. Uber launched its mobile app-driven, on-demand car service in Denver last summer to much fanfare, and freed us from having to deal with crazy taxi drivers.A blowout, ballerific gift for that special someone: Want to impress the one you love, who really, really loves wine? Give them something to help keep their most precious bottles in pristine condition -- a Wine Enthusiast wine refrigerator. Granted, it's $329, but it's also stylish, practical and best of all, has two separate temperature-controlled zones for keeping your whites and reds perpetually service-ready. And you're sure to receive a gift in return -- sharing the sipping pleasure of all that perfectly chilled wine stored inside.
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