Think outside the bottle for a wine-lover's gift

Buying gifts for the wine lovers on your list offers many diverse and unusual options.

With each passing year, I see more and more creative, bizarre and genuinely ridiculous wine-related gadgets and Web offerings, along with new takes on old standbys — corkscrews, bottle sealers and books. There is absolutely no need to struggle with the "What wine do I buy for the collector who already has everything?" question. If you want to be entirely practical, I promise you that any wine lover — even one whose cellar is about to burst — will be very glad to have a good wine book, a good corkscrew or an extra wine chiller. These are all can't-miss options.

If you want to venture into more adventurous gift-giving realms, read on. Here's a mix of ideas new and old, some tried and some truly wacky, guaranteed to make your wine-loving spouse or friend happy enough to pull out something special with your name on it.

Cork-pullers

It's odd but true; even the most avid wine collectors rarely own a decent waiter's corkscrew. Sure, they might have one of those wretched things with the flip-up metal wings, or the latest lever-style cork-puller from Rabbit or Screwpull or one of the companies making knock-offs. But what they really need is one good, all-purpose pull-tap.

Find one that feels ergonomically correct in your hand. It should have a "worm" (the screw part) as thin as possible and Teflon-coated, and the part that grips the lip of the bottle should be double hinged for added leverage with longer corks. This is the one style of cork-puller that will work on everything, including those horrid rubber and plastic corks that could destroy your Rabbit. Every wine shop in town will be able to show you a good selection of waiter's pull-taps, and you needn't spend more than $20 for a really good one.

Really useful stuff

A decanter is something everyone should have, and you cannot have too many. You can find nice ones in almost any antique shop; they will have more character than a brand-new one and might even cost less. Just beware of chips, cracks and discolorations.

Another exceptionally useful little gizmo is the Rapid Ice wine chiller from VacuVin (www.vacuvin.nl/). You keep it in your freezer, and it will slip over a bottle of wine to quickly chill it; especially handy when you've grabbed something at the supermarket to drink with supper and you need to get it cold fast.

Cleverest gift idea

Northwest Cellars designs custom labels, to order, for your special event or company function. You have a choice of red, white or sparkling, and you get your own label, with whatever photo, illustration or logo you wish, nicely designed and custom-printed. There is a one-time setup charge of $65 per label and a minimum order of one case. The wines cost $12 to $21, depending on which you choose. Place your order by calling 866-421-9463. For more information, check out the Web site (www.northwestcellars.com).

Best wine-shipper

The Wine Kaddy is the Hummer of wine carriers, a heavy-duty, riveted aluminum box with retractable handles and wheels. It comes in two-, three-, four-, six- and 12-bottle sizes. The smaller sizes can be carried on an airplane, and the big ones (designed for the trade) can be checked through baggage without fear of breakage. The exterior is painted with an electrostatic powder paint; styrene inserts and sponge rubber gaskets protect the wine from temperature fluctuations and physical damage during transportation. Not cheap! The larger sizes go for up to $350. Call 408-292-2120 or check www.winekaddy.com for ordering information.

Books

I won't pretend to have looked at all of the wine books that have been released in the past year, but here are two I happily can recommend:

Elin McCoy's chatty, detailed and highly opinionated study of wine critic Robert Parker ("The Emperor of Wine," Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.95) is chock-full of well-researched history, highlighted with juicy, gossipy intrigue. Parker has been subject to death threats; lawsuits; and periodic rumors about his declining health, substantial weight gain, fading palate, etc. But the guy is relentless, maniacally dedicated to his work and vastly influential. Anyone who follows wine reviews and scores will love reading about the man who invented the 100-point scale.

Certainly one of the best wine books I've ever read was "Wine & War" by Don and Petie Kladstrup. Now the husband-and-wife journalists have released "Champagne — How The World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times" (William Morrow, $23.95). It's a loving homage to the region and its history. Champagne, they inform us, "has been drenched with more blood than perhaps any other place on earth." They start things off with a picnic to an ancient campsite, where Attila the Hun massacred the Roman legions on Sept. 21, 451. From there, the book engagingly tells the sometimes familiar, sometimes obscure stories of the people and events whose inspiration and perspiration have made Champagne the best-loved and most irreplaceable of all wines. A great read.

And now for something

completely different

Is your regular toothpaste letting you down when it comes to eradicating the after-effects of a long night of oysters and caviar, foie gras and Bordeaux? Have no fear, Breath Palate is here.

A mouth gel that comes in a tiny, travel-size tube, Breath Palette's "Flavor 0" was created, the company tells me, to cleanse the tongue and teeth, restore the natural pH balance in your mouth and banish bad mouth odors.

I tried it out. I cannot say with any certainty that "Flavor O" fulfilled its promise to "move my mouth from the 'hot zone' to more neutral territory." I didn't have a chance to check my mouth's pH, either, but I have every reason to believe their admonition that "by bringing it to a 7.5 pH balance with ingredients Potassium Phosphate and Disodium Phosphate," I'm going to have a happy mouth. Breath Palate comes in 32 flavors (mine, I think, was "brine") and with ingredients such as extracts of licorice, ginseng root, honeysuckle, soapberry tree and baikal skullcap root, you know it's gotta be doing something! Available at drugstore.com and some Nordstrom outlets for about $5 a tube.

Paul Gregutt is the author of "Northwest Wines." His column appears weekly in the Wine section.

He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.