Best boozy presents UK 2022: best alcohol gifts for festive fun - spirits, wines, gift sets and Champagne
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For many of us, Christmas is a time to enjoy a handsome tipple or two. Some of us will be restocking our drinks cabinets in anticipation of a wee dram on a winter’s evening, or looking to ensure we have lovely bottles on hand to gift to those we love. But while a handy bottle of Bailey’s may never go astray - called, as it is by some, Christmas milk (£21 at Tesco’s just now), sometimes you’re after something a little more special. Be it for you - wanting to ring in the festive season with a new drop of splosh - or as a present - this is the time to indulge in a different drink.
We’ve got you. From spectacular rums, to wines to lift the mood of even the weariest soul, to smoky bourbon - here are the Christmas spirits that will truly make you feel jolly. Of course - enjoy them responsibly, please.
Oh - and a note. You may be tempted to buy a whisky lover ‘whisky stones’ - stones that go into the freezer, allowing drinkers to cool their dram without diluting it. In our not inconsiderable experience, this is a poor idea. Nobody we know who is an avid whisky fan uses the whisky stones they have been gifted - and most of them have been gifted several sets. Maybe this is anathema but we’d avoid them as a purchase unless you enjoy seeing your gift head straight to a charity shop.
An intriguing little number, ideal, we found, for building cocktails - especially a Daiquiri or Mary Pickford.
Tidal Rum is manufactured in Jersey, though it’s built from a blend of rums distilled in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic. If that makes it sound busy, well, you may be a blend-snob (no shame: we all have our preferences). For our money, we found this tipple to be super smooth with a ticklish saline finish which really comes through in mixed drinks. It’s suffused with “oak-smoked pepper dulse seaweed foraged from the tides of Jersey” which, in layman’s terms, just makes it a touch smoky on the back of the palate.
So, grab your Tidal, some limes, and some sugar, channel your inner Hemingway and fix a Daiquiri (though he omitted the sugar - Papa Doble was diabetic) for a Merry Christmas indeed.
Just remember the sage words of Charles H Baker in the superlative Gentleman’s Companion, and go easy on the sugar: “a too sweet Daiquiri is like a lovely lady with too much perfume”.
“My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne.”
Thus spake John Maynard Keynes, perhaps hoping his economic theory that the government should intervene when public demand for a commodity drops extended to a gubernatorial Fizz Stimulus Package. For our part, we intend on not sharing Keynes’ regret.
Champagne Piaff Brut, then, provides an excellent option for quaffing on Christmas. Yes, the price tag is one at odds with a cost of living crisis. If you need a more affordable bubbly, we have a gallery of sub £35 drops - or hit up a cremant, which is made according to méthode champenoise but without the price tag that comes from being from the Champagne region.
But the Piaff - yes, this is worth your pounds, and attention. A blend of 30% Pinot Meunier, 35% Pinot Noir & 35% Chardonnay, it has a creamy, frothy mousse, suitably decadent for celebrations. There’s a hint of vanilla brioche and light notes of apple and pear, just a touch of lemon-y acidity. It slides down like an ill-judged metaphor. Sets one in a delighfully carefree mood. We love it.
To paraphrase the Pixies, drink this monkey and you’re gone to heaven.
Cocktail crafting is one of those skills that is often shrouded in a - forgive us - needlessly pretentious air of mystery, presented as a hallowed art perfected by an elite few when it’s usually little more than mixing two parts this to one part that with a dash of the other and a garnish. That said, if you’re a true home cocktail neophyte, whisky and ginger ale, we maintain, is the easiest combination to get right (yes, even above a G’n’T) - ice, a double of whisky, top with ginger ale, garnish with a lime wedge.
And Monkey Shoulder is a fabulous wee dram to do it with. It’s a very suppable whisky - smoky oakiness on the nose, then a smooth, malty sweetness and a hint of citrus. The sweet zing of the Fever Tree ginger ale makes a cocktail even whisky deniers will enjoy - warming and refreshing.
A thoughtful gift set for a cocktail newbie.
