Most people know enough not to arrive at a party packing a drugstore wine, unless, of course, it can safely dissolve into the anonymity of a wine pile. But there are other verboten types, particularly these perfectly good ones that are unfairly plagued by lingering reputational issues:
VICTIMS OF ’70S CHARACTER ASSASINATION:
The ’70s were reputationally devstating for certain Italian wine types. Incessant commercials by Italian producer Bolla (check YouTube for a giggle) convinced everyone that Soave and Valpolicella were the official wines of leisure-suited trysts. Riunite did the same with Lambrusco in its “Riunite on ice, that’s nice” TV spots, hawking its sweet, commercial version of this otherwise respectable bubbly red from Italy. Save the small-batch, dry, fizzy, food-fabulous Lambruscos now available for yourself. Chianti had its own gawky ’70s phase, when the wine was orange-tinted, underripe, and housed in straw-clad bottles. Even though this prototypical Tuscan has undergone a quality renaissance and is prized for its cherry-strawberry, savory spice and food-friendly acidity, its past makes it a problematic gift.
DELUXE BOTTLINGS OF EVERYDAY BRANDS:
Workhorse wineries such as Kendall Jackson and J. Lohr make delicious, upmarket cuvées alongside their supermarket staples, but the ubiquity of their basic offerings diminishes the prestige of their special bottles. Like a Chevy supercar, they have impressive performance but lack the ability to escape their brand’s blah identity.
PINOT GRIGIO:
Its invocation as a mantra on Bravo’s Real Housewives series has made it synonymous with the image of MILFs gone wild.
DESSERT WINE:
What makes high-end dessert wine a relative value at stores and auctions makes it an unappreciated gift, because many people wrongly assume that all styles are sickly sweet.
UNGLAMOROUS PACKAGING:
If you choose carefully, delicious wine can be found under screw caps and in boxes, cans, and blue glass (evocative of the forgettable Blue Nun), but gift giving is not the time to fight the enduring biases against these types.