Welcome to the New Wine Review’s Father’s Day Wine Gift Questionnaire! Our team of experts has assembled the following entirely comprehensive questionnaire consisting of eleven questions to assist you in obtaining exactly the right gift for your wine-loving dad this Father’s Day.   

If, upon reading any of the below questions, you find yourself answering in the affirmative, you may wish to follow the corresponding recommendation provided by our world-class collection of dad-knowers. 

Happy Father’s Day, wine friends! Here’s to your dad.

Does your dad purchase books about Winston Churchill with astonishing regularity? 

The great man famously loved Champagne, and so should any fan of the British Bulldog.  It’s often noted that Churchill’s preferred Grande Marque was Pol Roger, which makes a “Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill” to the presumed specifications of the former Prime Minister.  It’s a fine Champagne fit for quiet evenings and state dinners alike. 

Less well known, as Contributing Editor Eric Felten points out, was Churchill’s affinity for other top tier wines, including Grand Cru Chablis and Claret (Bordeaux). On these fronts, Master of Wine Christy Canterbury, NWR’s resident expert on these regions, recommends a bottle of Valmur Chablis Grand Cru (a wine cellared at Chequers) or a bottle of powerful-yet-graceful 1990 Saint-Julien, both of which Churchill would have enjoyed heartily.

Is your dad not about to be taken for a ride?

Of course he’s not. The man knows an overpriced wine when he sees one. So get him The Paring 2018 Red Blend, from insider favorite winemaker Matt Dees. Senior Editor Virginie Boone says, “Dees selects vineyard blocks that don’t quite fit the style of his (much more expensive) signature wines, The Hilt and JONATA. This Bordeaux blend from some of the most renowned parcels in Santa Ynez, Santa Maria Valley and Sta. Rita Hills makes an outstanding wine for a very decent price ($25).”

But also: “don’t sleep on Rioja,” says Regional Editor Anna Lee C. Ijima. “The region remains shockingly undervalued overall, but López de Heredia’s 2014 Viña Cubillo Crianza Rioja, an entry-level bottling from one of Rioja’s most traditional producers, outperforms even its high-QPR peers on a regular basis. Aged three years in American oak, plus two more years in bottle before release, the Cubillo Crianza could be labeled a Gran Reserva. It’s a fleshier, juicier wine compared to the Reserva bottlings, but also shows nice, inky edges and an earthen, spicy undertone of tobacco and wet leaves. 

Does your dad just need to sit with a drink and stare into space for a while?

If so, Christy recommends getting him situated with a “wine of contemplation,” a term used occasionally for the very best sweet wines. Donnafugata 2021 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé is just the ticket, delivering whirlwinds of flavor atop a pitch-perfect structure that makes it incredibly drinkable, yet meditatively complex. The wine is made on Pantelleria, a tiny Italian island that sits halfway between Sicily and Tunisia, a place perhaps far enough away for your dad’s thoughts to come peacefully to rest.

Does your dad love whiskey more than wine?

You must be looking for this questionnaire.  

Is your dad right when everyone else is wrong?  

Acquaint him with the history of Nathan Fay, a fellow risk-taker who disregarded conventional wisdom on his way to grape-growing fame. Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon likely wouldn’t exist without Fay, who, like everyone in the Napa Valley in the 1960s, was drowning in prune orchards. So he decided to plant Cabernet Sauvignon on his land while everyone else in the valley told him it was too cold. In 1976, Fay was vindicated by the Judgment of Paris and the subsequent success of Warren Winiarski’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, which included grapes inspired by Fay (not to mention cuttings from his vineyard). Eventually purchased by Winiarski, Fay Vineyard went on to become one of the most important parcels of grape-growing land in America. Today, Virginie notes that the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 2019 Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon might well be a perfect wine, and a perfect gift for the dad who occasionally considers himself to be out there all alone among the benighted masses.

Does your dad deserve the greatest gift any father can possibly receive?

Click here for gift subscriptions to The New Wine Review.
Undying paternal love has never been so easily earned.  

Does your dad boldly drink what few have dared to drink before?

What Dad wants to follow the crowd, lemming-like, off the cliff and into a sea of rosé and Cabernet? Not yours. Help your dad signal his resolute independence of thought with a bottle of Tinto Amorio 2022 Bheeyo, a lovely amber wine made from organic Gewürtztraminer grown in the California sun. Christy notes that at only 11.2% ABV, this easy drinker is a delightful companion on the road less traveled by.

Did your dad go bonkers at H Mart and now has no idea how to pair wine with his pantry full of Korean ingredients?

“Korean cuisine might not seem an obvious match with wine,” says Anna Lee, “but your dad will be thrilled to find that the red-peppered tang of kimchi (fermented vegetables) and briny funk of doenjang (fermented soybeans) pair gorgeously with the electric zip of German Riesling, particularly the Robert Weil 2020 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese with its heat-quenching streak of tangerine and apricot sweetness.” 

If your dad is heading grillward with a platter of kalbi (those beefy strips of short rib marinated in a sweet-soy sauce), Anna Lee recommends Guy Breton’s 2021 Beaujolais Cuvée Léa, “a delicately tannic red with raspberry and cherry flavors, and a slight earthen, umami base.” Appropriately, the Cuvée Léa was named in honor of Breton’s granddaughter. 

Has your dad been had?

An exceedingly gentle nudge in the direction of WineFraud.com might make Dad less sad. 

Is your dad a fan of the Colorado Rockies?

Our heart goes out to him. Bruce Bochy, wine aficionado and one of the winningest baseball managers of all time, led the San Francisco Giants to three championships during his tenure as skipper. Baseball fans are typically loath to follow any advice from a rival, but your Rockies-loving dad may wish to disregard his hard-wired intra-divisional bias to enjoy a bottle of Jordan 2019 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, one of Bochy’s favorite wines. Jordan Cabs are built to age, says Virginie (a diehard Giants booster), and this one should be drinking beautifully 10 years from now, which may be the soonest Rockies fans have anything to celebrate.

Does your dad have more than 3,000 bottles in his cellar?

The man could use a nice card.