Whatever your budget, we’ll help you find the right gift (as long as it’s wine).
For something so fleeting, wine is a hard gift to top. Whether it’s a bottle that goes straight on to the Christmas dinner table with the turkey and roast potatoes, gets carefully cellared until some extra-special occasion or casually slurped with pizza and a best friend, wine is a gift that’s remembered and always appreciated.
With so much to choose from, we’ve put together a list of the best gift ideas for wine lovers, accounting for every style and budget preference from less than $20 to under $200. Whether you’re buying Christmas gifts for in-the-know wine buffs, wine newbies or some co-worker you barely know, let the Dan’s Daily experts guide your gifting this year.
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Wines under $20
1. Grant Burge Barossa Ink Shiraz
Deep, dark shiraz is a signature of Barossa wine and it doesn't get much more intense than this example from Grant Burge. They call it Barossa Ink and it’s easy to see why, with a colour palette that is dark and brooding that hint at the jammy black fruits and velvety tannins within. A wine for anyone in your life who thinks bigger is always better.
My Dan’s member price: $15
Regular price: $18.99
Rosé is one of the best wines to give as a gift and here’s why: it’s almost always made for drinking now. Dry, crisp and loaded with flavours of cranberry and Pink Lady apple, this Mr Mick Rosé from Tim Adams is begging to join those post-Christmas barbecues, meaning you’ll be getting that post-gift praise you crave ASAP. Heck, give it to ’em chilled and they might offer you a glass right there.
Price: $16.99
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This bubbly drop comes straight from Australia’s prosecco heartland, the King Valley, but it’s not exactly traditional. Being the first of its kind bottled under screwcap means 6ft6 Prosecco is both trend-setting and practical (save those bubbles, folks), while the wine itself is a lively mix of crisp pear and lemon curd flavours that will suit anyone with a taste for fresh, easy-going summer styles.
My Dan’s member price: $18
Regular price: $19.99
Wines under $30
4. Wildman Wines Astro Bunny Pet Nat
When a wine is called ‘Astro Bunny’ and is this particular shade of sunset pink (the winemaker calls it ‘lava lamp carrot’), you know it’s going to be fun. Pet nats are the OG sparkling wines but only (relatively) recently on everyone’s radar, and Wildman Wines Astrobunny shows why with its gentle fizz, bright hues and flavours of guava juice. A blend of arneis, nero d’Avola and fiano grapes, this is proper party-time wine. FYI – Tim Wildman, Master of Wine, first released this pet nat 10 years ago and it’s gone on to become one of Australia’s favourites (oh, and the rest of the world – it’s now exported to 16 countries).
Price: $29.99
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5. Hither & Yon Touriga Tempranillo
Move over French and Italian grape varieties – these days we’re all about Spanish and Portuguese wines, like this blend of touriga nacional and tempranillo from Hither and Yon (one of our favourite hardcore sustainable producers). Turns out, the hot McLaren Vale sun makes a welcome home away from home for these Iberian grapes, producing a big-flavoured wine packed with notes like chocolate, cherry and sarsaparilla. A winner for budding wine adventurers or a great alternative for those normally wedded to big shiraz.
Price: $29.99
Wines under $40
6. Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay
From where we’d rather be (under the hot California sun) comes this modern classic. KJ’s Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay has, in recent years, been one of the few chards proud to show off a little toasty oak and creamy honey flavours, but it’s a far cry from the unbalanced butter bombs of old. Tropical and citrus fruit flavours marry with that extra richness for a chardonnay in a class of its own.
Price: $32.99
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7. St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
Coonawarra cabernet sits alongside Barossa shiraz and Clare Valley riesling as one of Australia’s great contributions to world of wine, and St Hugo has long been one of its best producers. This 2020 cabernet sauvignon is everything we love in a Coonawarra cab, being a wine of depth and complexity, with floral aromas backed by flavours like plum, anise and sundried tomato. Definitely cellar-worthy.
Price: $36.90
The Adelaide Hills is like the trendy suburb of Australian wine – it seems to be where all the cool, artsy and slightly off-kilter winemakers are congregating. Consider Seven Eves Pinot Noir, then, as a wine for those looking to explore beyond the mainstream. Like the region’s best, this pinot combines attention to detail and winemaking skill with drink-now freshness. There’s also juicy fruit flavours from carbonic maceration and old-school structure from whole-bunch fermentation and time in French oak.
Price: $43.99
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9. Patient Cottat Sancerre Anciennes Vignes
The Kiwis have taken sauvignon blanc to the big time thanks to Marlborough’s unique style, but let’s not forget about the French classics. Sancerre is a subregion of France’s Loire Valley and the sauv blanc here – like this ‘Anciennes Vignes’ marvel from Patient Cottat – is known for being elegant, intensely aromatic and a little fuller-bodied than the Antipodean equivalent. With this, you’ll get a wine with a rich mouthfeel and apricot and lychee flavours that makes for a proper premium sauv (nothing like the icky house wine at your local).
Price: $41.99
10. Les Trois Clefs Châteauneuf du Pape
’Tis the season of barbecues, which is also, conveniently, when this French red wine comes into its own. From the Cotes du Rhone region, this grenache shiraz blend is all juicy red fruits with spice, power and complexity – read: a cracker with grilled meat and veg. Châteauneuf du Pape – pronounced sha-toe-nerf-doo-pap – really is as much fun to drink as it is to say, and it’s also going to play nicely at every dinner invite you get this season, even if you don’t know what’s being served up.
Price: $54.99
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11. Nicolas Feuillatte Grande Reserve Brut Champagne
Despite being France’s top-selling Champagne, Nicolas Feuillate flies a little under the radar over here. Let’s be clear though: this is definitely a bottle of bubbles worth knowing about. The young Champagne house selects the best grapes from over 5,000 producers, giving this Grande Reserve Brut depth, complexity and freshness well beyond its price tag, with flavours of crisp apple and red fruits coming to the party.
Price: $59.99
12. Mount Langi Ghiran Talus Shiraz
The Grampians is home to some unique takes on classic wines and that goes double for those of Mount Langi Ghiran, loved for producing cool-climate shiraz to write home about. Named after a unique and ancient granite rock formation, the Talus Shiraz is a refined, brooding wine with a medium body that’s packed with spice, black fruits and subtle herbs. It’s everything that’s great about Grampians shiraz and, while it’s drinking well already, this will definitely pick up steam with a few years in the cellar of whoever is lucky enough to receive it.
Price: $68.99
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We love chardonnay in all its forms, but Chablis is absolutely up there with the best. A region within Burgundy, Chablis wines are known for their zippy acidity, steely mineral notes and spectrum of stone fruit and citrus flavours. This Bernard Defaix Chablis is all of that, with pithy grapefruit and lemon flavours, as well as a quenching freshness that could easily turn the chardonnay lover in your life into a Chablis obsessive.
Price: $74.99
Wines under $100
14. Oakridge Yarra Valley Vignette Hamper
Chardonnay and pinot noir are two of the best wines out there (If you ask us, at least) and Oakridge in Victoria’s Yarra Valley is a highly awarded master of both. So, when this winery puts out a special pack holding a bottle of each of their Willow Lake Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, along with a Robert Gordon jug and Bonnie and Neil tea towel, we get a bit excited. In fact, this one hits all the gifting criteria so well that we might just be buying it for ourselves.
My Dan’s member price: $99
Regular price: $189
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15. Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon
There is nothing so beautiful (in the wine world, at least) as the metamorphosis of aged semillon. This single-vineyard icon of Hunter Valley wine is held back for a few years before release, developing rich, creamy and toasty flavours alongside the young wine’s powerful acidity and racy citrus flavours. For those with an interest in unique Australian wines or a taste for premium whites, Lovedale Semillon is hard to beat.
Price: $99.99
16. Levantine Hill Katherine’s Paddock Chardonnay
Premium chardonnay seems to come up out of the ground like springwater in the Yarra Valley but, even still, this example from Levantine Hill is a rare beauty. Produced from a single vineyard, Katherine’s Paddock Chardonnay is a serious feat of winemaking skill, from hand-picking the fruit to ageing on lees and the use of malolactic fermentation. The result is a wine of intensity, texture, balance and cellar potential that would suit any chardonnay expert just fine.
My Dan’s member price: $110
Regular price: $124.99
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17. Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz
It starts with vines more than 100 years old and ends with a deep, intense shiraz that is regularly regarded as one of Australia’s very best. The single vineyard Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz is a McLaren Vale beefcake, dialling up tannin, oak and fruit to the max – alongside intense flavours of coffee, chocolate and liquorice – while keeping everything in perfect balance. A special shiraz, to be sure.
Price: $119.99
Winemaker Vanya Cullen does not take shortcuts, and it puts wines like Diana Madeline in the very top tier. This Bordeaux blend from Margaret River is mainly cabernet sauvignon with small percentages of merlot, cabernet franc and malbec, produced from biodynamic fruit and aged for 15 months in French oak. With supernatural length and depth, this absolute legend of Australian wine is a cellar centrepiece or a special-occasion drop (next to beef wellington or roast lamb, we’d say) that would put you in the Christmas good books for life.
My Dan’s member price: $145
Regular price: $159.99
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Wines under $200
19. Lanson Black Label Champagne Brut Magnum
Magnums are just fun. They seem only to make sense in the centre of party tables, pouring endless rounds for cheerful family and friends, and that makes them an ideal gift in our books. So much the better, then, when the magnum is 1.5L of Lanson Black Label Champagne Brut – a fresh, elegant and lightly toasty Champagne that begs for salty snacks or seafood platters and the comforting din of boisterous company. Oh, and, one more thing: you’re going to need a bigger gift bag.
Price: $164.99
