Perfect Xmas Gifts for Wine & Gin Lovers

It can be hard choosing a Christmas present - you want to be sure it will be appreciated!

The problem with buying more 'stuff' is (even if it's a nice bottle of wine or a clever wine gadget) that your selection may not suit the recipient's taste or they may already have the gadget.

But what if I could show you a Christmas gift which is original and fun AND allows the recipient to exercise their own choices and preferences?

I'm talking about Wine Tasting gift experiences. These attractively printed, gold-leaf gift vouchers are:

• undated so the recipient can choose a convenient date
• flexible so they can be used for any subject/theme
• valid 2 years so there will be plenty of opportunities to redeem them

Cambridgeshire Wine School sells a popular range of gift vouchers covering all the fun and informative wine tastings (and gin tastings) running in central Cambridge.

You can either order value vouchers of (£25, £50, £75, £100) or you can select a category you think your recipient might enjoy (safe in the knowledge that all vouchers can be exchanged for any other kind of event if they prefer).

Below is a brief description of each category of gift voucher (but remember they can all be swapped for other experiences simply by paying any difference due).

Cheese and Wine tasting gift vouchers are incredibly popular (because who doesn't like cheese with wine)? At the wine school's monthly Cheese & Wine events you have loads of fun learning how to pair cheese and wine while sampling 7 artisan cheeses with 7 quality wines.

• Click here to get a Cheese & Wine tasting voucher for one, £35
• Click here to get a Cheese & Wine tasting voucher for two, £70

Gin tasting gift vouchers give an opportunity to catch up with the world of craft gin and sample 6 excellent gins first neat, then with FeverTree tonic and finally with a garnish. At each stage the flavour of the gin will be different and it can be fun to work out which gins at a given evening scored best neat or with tonic or with garnish. Gin tastings are monthly.

• Click here to get a Gin tasting voucher for one, £30
• Click here to get a Gin tasting voucher for two, £60

Saturday wine course gift vouchers give a whole day experience (11am-4pm including lunch) in a historic Cambridge college. They run 15 times a year so there is plenty of chance to select a good date. The experience is fully tutored tasting through 13 wines starting with Champagne. After a delicious 2-course lunch there is a mini-tour of the college and a demonstration of how to open Champagne with a sword. Also covered are subjects like keeping and storing wine, the correct service temperatures and how to read labels.

• Click here to get a Saturday wine course (with lunch) voucher for one, £99
• Click here to get a Saturday wine course (with lunch) voucher for two, £198

Champagne and Sparkling gift vouchers are an opportunity to come to a wonderful wine tasting evening focused on bubbly and celebration. Compare Champagne with Prosecco and Cava and taste and learn about other sparkling wines. Plus learn the special food opportunities that can have you reaching for Champagne.

Click here to get a Champagne & Sparkling tasting voucher for one, £35

Click here to get a Champagne & Sparkling tasting voucher for two, £70

If you prefer a standard evening wine tasting gift voucher then your recipient can use it to choose an introductory wine tasting or an evening focused on a particular country e.g. France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, Chile and Argentina or the USA and South Africa. Or they can use it for any other one-off event. These events run every week.

Click here to get an Evening Wine Tasting voucher for one, £25

Click here to get an Evening Wine Tasting voucher for two, £50

From January 2020 the venue for wine school evening tastings will be The Tamburlaine Hotel, a boutique hotel very near to Cambridge Rail Station. This location is perfect if you are coming to Cambridge by train and there are also parking spaces in roads around the hotel.

For Saturday wine courses the venue is the beautiful Christ's college, where Charles Darwin studied. The meeting space is in the oldest part of the college in the wood-panelled Old Combination Room.

I hope this is helpful to you for buying Christmas gifts.

Mark Anstead