Birthday Wine: A Buying Guide & Top Picks
Finding a birthday gift for the friend who has everything can seem like an impossible task. The best gift you can give will be a bottle of birthday wine!
With so many different types of wine lovers (connoisseurs, occasional drinkers, or boxed wine lovers), finding the perfect wine for that special friend is very important. With over 10,000 varieties to choose from you are sure to get the right birthday wine for whatever the occasion calls for.
You may be looking for a particular wine from the birthday girl or guy’s birth year. In that case, we’ve found some recommendations for you! Keep in mind that each year had its up and downs, so some years have better options than others. That doesn’t mean you can’t find a bottle of wine that will celebrate a milestone for your special person.
Let’s find the right wine for your birthday girl or guy and let’s get the party started right!
The Wine for Everyone
Maybe you forgot to grab a birthday gift a few weeks ago, and now you’re left with the only option: wine. While it is a great last-minute gift option, finding a type of wine that will please a majority of the guests should of top priority!
Here are some great options both red and white to please a majority of the guests at the party (including your birthday friend):
White: Rombauer Chardonnay (3 Liter Bottle) 2016
Red: Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (1.5L Magnum) 2014
The Big Day
Maybe your birthday friend is hosting a dinner party, or you’re attending a wedding. If you are, you will want to find the wine that costs as much as it does the newlyweds or dinner host to host you on their big day. Some great options for these occasions are luxury wines with a fizz from champagne houses or even a rare red wine.
White: M. Chapoutier Ermitage de l’Oree Blanc (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2014
Red: Guigal La Landonne Cote-Rotie 2013
Sweet Tooth Lovers
Your birthday guy or gal may have a sweet tooth, which means there are some great wines for you to choose from to get their taste buds popping. Some of the greatest sweet wines hail from the Douro Valley, Portugal area. Sweet, red, and fortified port wine comes from this region and provides those with a sweet tooth with quality wine that offers the right amount of sweet. You want to look for vintage that is around 2011, 2003, or 2000 era.
White: Disznoko 5 Puttonyos Aszu Tokaji 2007
Red: Quady Elysium Black Muscat (375ML half-bottle) 2015
Wine Connoisseurs
Maybe the person you’re celebrating is a wine connoisseur and wants nothing but the best wine to help their birthday be as special as it can be! There is nothing wrong with that, but that means you’ll have to be extra careful when selecting the wine you gift them. It’s really important to use your creative juices when buying a bottle of wine for someone who thinks about wine outside of the usual box. They most likely want to venture away from Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, which is absolutely fine. Think of the unlikely choices such as Barolo and Brunello from Italy! You’ll be sure to please your wine connoisseur birthday friend without a doubt!
White: Marchesi di Barolo Arneis 2013
Red: La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 Tinto 2007
Pop That Bubbly
Your favorite birthday girl or gal may want nothing more than to taste the bubbly fizzing in their mouth to truly celebrate the day they were born! Who could blame them?
In 2018, one of the hottest birthday gift trends is to buy the birthday celebrator a bottle of wine from his or her birth year! The trick is knowing what type of wine from their birth year is worth spending the money on.
Let’s look at some milestone birthday years that could benefit from an aged wine (appropriately aged for legal drinking age in most countries).
18th Birthday Wine
If your friend was born 18 years ago (and lives in most countries but The United States), nice wine from 2000 would be a great gift.
Champagne is always a great way to go with gifting wine, and a great choice for champagne from 2000 is Dom Perignon P2.
21st Birthday Wine
Living in The United States means the 21st birthday is the biggest birthday of all! If you want vintage champagne from 1997, you could opt for Champagne Cristal Brut. The price range might mean it’s only intended for a very special person, but it would be worth it!
There are other choices you can go with from 1997. It depends on what you’re going for taste wise, but nice champagne to celebrate the big 2-1 can never go wrong.
30th Birthday Wine
1988 brought about a classic Bordeaux during its time that retained his vigor throughout the years. Many auction showrooms will display vintage red Burgundies such as De Montille’s Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans. You can get many great wines from 1988 from all around the world, so you cannot go wrong with a vintage wine from 1988 to celebrate one of the biggest birthdays a person could celebrate.
50th Birthday Wine
For those friends who are already vintage wines themselves, vintage wines from 1968 are few and far between. This might be a big birthday to celebrate, but finding an old wine that tastes as delicious as you as you feel might be kind of difficult to do. To be safe, you could purchase a Blandy’s Bual Madeira, but the price tag may be a bit high for you. Because the wines left from 1968 that would be worth drinking are left to slim pickings, if this is something you really want to get the birthday girl or guy, price tags can’t be an issue!
As you can see, getting a birthday wine for your special celebrant leaves you with many great options! Whether it’s a milestone birthday or simply a special person in your life, finding a glass of wine to celebrate the occasion doesn’t have to be difficult!
