Although many people are beginning to offer wine as a common gift in the US, a lot of Americans do not have very sophisticated tools when it comes to opening a bottle, serving it, and storing it. In light of this, a great gift for anyone for the holidays is a wine gift set that includes the basic tools for wine.

Typical Tools

In a wine gift set you will find tools such as a corkscrew and a knife. Many people have started using fancy wine openers that bill themselves as being the best of the best when it comes to opening a bottle of wine with ease. But the truth is that anyone who plans on drinking wine more than one night a year should know how to use a real wine tool. This tool is the simplest of the tools for wine found in gift sets specifically for wine drinkers. Some call it a waiter’s tool and some call it a corkscrew, but it is a leverage device, and a simple blade for cutting through the seal at the top of the neck of the bottle.

These wine tools are foolproof; they do not include any fancy gadgets, but they always work properly. One of the main drawbacks of all the fancy new tools on the market is that it can be nearly impossible to remove the cork from these tools once you have successfully opened the bottle. This basic tool works every time if you screw it straight into the cork, so it is the traditional tool to be included in a wine gift set.

In addition to the basic tool, a wine gift set might include a re-corking device. A traditional cork, made of cork, can easily be re-inserted into a bottle of wine as long as it is re-corked with the cork facing the opposite direction from the original direction. However, the abundance of new foam and wax corks make a re-corking device extremely handy. A wax cork is virtually impossible to re-insert into an open bottle; thus, a wine gift set including a cork top is a great idea for today’s wine drinker.

In addition to these two standard tools, you might find a gift set for wine with an additional knife or with a cheese knife added in. Gift sets from Laguiole and other French makers are likely to do this as wine and cheese seem to always go together, so a wine set should logically include cheese in its scope. Whichever tools are included in a given set, the recipient is sure to appreciate this gift that will complement so many other gifts received in the holiday season as giving wine becomes more and more popular.