On the feast of St Nicolas I present three brilliant suggestions for presents. For the
serious wine geek in your life (which may indeed be you) what better than Wine Grapes, our enthusiastically received tome? Don't just believe me. You can read what others have written about it here. Right are the UK (left) and US editions which differ only in their covers and matching slipcases. And this picture was taken long before the true extent of the text was realised. The finished volumes are actually about twice as thick as this. 
But if Wine Grapes is too thick (1,242 pages), too heavy (7 lb/3 kg) or too expensive (£120/$175 reduced to around £76/$110 online from Amazon), then how about the beautiful Art of the Restaurateur by my husband and FT restaurant writer Nick Lander? It was good enough to feature on the cover of The Economist, no less, and is currently being reprinted. It really is a great read, profiles 20 successful restaurateurs around the world and constitutes a subliminal guide to how to run a place where people want to eat.
But if both of these are two solid, here's a suggestion for a gift that weighs
practically nothing, does not involve going into a shop and lasts all year. A gift subscription to our Purple Pages, of course. Membership of our very friendly community of wine lovers costs £69 for 12 months' unlimited access to nearly 10,000 articles and 75,000 fully searchable wine reviews, as well as the only online version of The Oxford Companion to Wine and all the maps from The World Atlas of Wine.
Just click here and once you sign up you will be sent a code that you can share with the lucky recipient as and when you wish their Purple Pages membership to start.
If you'd like something physical to hand over, just email our membership supremo Rachel Shaughnessy at subscriptions@jancisrobinson.com with the name and address to which you'd like one of the handsome gift cards shown here to be sent.