‘Tis the season of the Christmas spirit

Published 12:00 am Thursday, December 15, 2016

For the true wine aficionado, few holiday gifts may be as warmly appreciated as a good bottle of wine or three.

Unless, of course, you don’t have good food to enjoy it with.

Maragas Winery has planned two Christmas season events that reflect the giving spirit of the holidays through donating to the Central Oregon Food Bank. Patrons are asked to bring nonperishable food items to a Mulled Wine Celebration on Saturday, and to carry other packaged food donations to a Christmas Eve open house — after which NeighborImpact will distribute these gifts to families in need.

Other than food donations, there’s no charge to attend these events. Saturday’s party, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Winery Barrel Room, will include holiday music by Bend artist Michael John and a taste of Maragas’ own mulled wine. Available for purchase, this northern European tradition blends such spices as cinnamon and cloves with heated red wine.

The Christmas Eve event, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will also offer hot chocolate and spiced popcorn, as the Silverado Quartet performs seasonal classics a cappella.

Maragas produces a wide range of wines, including tempranillo, malbec, zinfandel, chardonnay, muscat and pinot rosé. Its flagship wine, the 2010 M, is a full-bodied blend of merlot and cabernet grapes, sourced from the Columbia River Gorge and barrel-aged five years in French and American oak. At $48, it makes a Christmas gift that can be consumed now or aged comfortably for several more years.

Other winery gifts

Hood River-based Naked Winery, with a popular tasting room in the Old Mill District, is offering several wine gift selections on its website, nakedwinery.com. My favorite is the Heart Throb Kit Wine Gift Set ($90), which includes one bottle each of Naked Pinot Gris and Penetration Cabernet Sauvignon, along with two stemless, 9-ounce wine glasses with the Naked Winery logo, and a bar of Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate. Sounds like a romance booster.

Among Willamette Valley wineries, Vista Hills Winery offers The Connoisseur gift pack ($52). It includes a bottle of its 2014 Treehouse pinot noir, a bag of Kona coffee from the owners’ cacao and coffee farm on Hawaii’s Big Island, and a bar of dark Hawaiian chocolate. Visit vistahillsvineyard.com for more information.

Cristom Vineyards’ Seasons Greetings gift set ($75) includes a bottle each of its 2015 estate pinot gris and its highly rated 2014 Mt. Jefferson cuvee pinot noir. The price of $75 includes the gift box and ground shipping. Order at cristomvineyards.com.

Sokol Blosser Winery selections include the Winter Wonderland ($79), exclusively for white-wine drinkers. This includes one bottle each of the 2014 vintages of Willamette Valley pinot gris, Willamette Valley riesling and Dundee Hills chardonnay. Link to “Shop Online” from sokolblosser.com.

The McMinnville-based R. Stuart & Co. winery is offering a $98 Celebration 3 Pack with two bottles of bubbly — a brut sparkling (a 100-percent chardonnay blanc de blancs) and the Rose d’Or (pink, made with pinot noir and chardonnay) — and a Klipsun Vineyard cabernet port. Order at rstuartandco.com.

From the wine regions of Southern Oregon, Harry & David (harryanddavid.com) has nearly two dozen holiday wine-gift ideas, ranging in price up to $329.99 for a Gourmet Celebration Chest with Personalized Blanket with Wine. The package includes bottles of pinot noir and riesling along with cheeses, salami, sweet snacks and a monogrammed fleece blanket. But my personal favorite is the Santa Pants Wine Gift ($69.99), with bottles of cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay tucked into the two legs of a designer bag and presented with a holiday-themed box of chocolate truffles.

Another gift option is Via One Hope’s Christmas in a Box ($99), featuring a bottle of sparkling brut covered in silver or gold glitter. It includes an 18-inch artificial tree with battery-operated lights, small ornaments and a star tree topper in a gift box. One Hope is a new Napa Valley winery whose winemaking is assisted by Robert Mondavi, Jr. Learn more at viaonehope.com/morewine.

J.K. Carriere

There are no special holiday boxes being offered by J.K. Carriere Wines, but this outstanding winery’s pinot noirs — in limited bottlings from 10 different vineyards, including the St. Dolores Estate — are worthy gifts for the true pinot connoisseur.

Owner-winemaker Jim Prosser, who grew up in Bend, started the winery in a century-old barn in Newberg in 1999. (Its name combines the initials of his two grandfathers, and its label — a wasp — is a constant reminder of his life-threatening allergy to its sting.) The winery relocated in 2009 to the southeast flank of Parrett Mountain, which has a killer view of Mount Hood.

I’m a particular fan of the 2014 Vespidae ($42), the winery’s flagship brand. A blend of pinot noir grapes from four different vineyards, it has a bright cherry-raspberry nose, cedarlike spice with big tannins. Its other pinots range in price from $24 to $110. Wine lovers can order directly from jkcarriere.com.

— John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.