Consider port. It keeps well opened (most wine spoils within a day unless you keep it nitrogen-filled) and has a rich, sweet taste that appeals to non-wine drinkers. Fine red wine is an acquired taste :)

Penfolds makes a great port called "Grandfather" for circa $100/bottle, and a much older/better one called "Great Grandfather" for $300/bottle. Excellent value and maybe appropriate branding for your needs. I've never met anyone who wasn't impressed with Great Grandfather port even if they had never drunk port before.

Keeping with the Penfolds theme I would go with Penfolds Grange. You are probably looking at $350-450 but has great name recognition and is a 95+ point wine in almost any year.

The ideas for port or dessert wines (e.g. Sauternes) are great, since high-quality sweet wines appeal to almost every taste.

Based on my experience with my Vietnamese in-laws, prestige and name recognition - the significance of the gift - seems to be as important as the quality. My father-in-law-in-law loves receiving wine, and will show it off and brag about it, but he stores it in a rack above his refrigerator, where it is exposed to heat. :eek:

So you could go really sophisticated/symbolic - 1961 was a legendary year for French bordeaux, arguably the best vintage of the 20th century: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/-/1961
and 1962 was also decent (and more within your budget for the big names): http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/-/1962
But you would need to contact a reputable high-end wine merchant to get any of these - someone who knows it was stored properly for 50 years.

If your budget is $500 or $1K, that opens up a lot of prestigious possibilities for recent wines, but many of those will only be known to wine insiders - How many people can really name a $500 bottle of wine? If you think the friends will know those top-level wines (or bother to look up the value) then definitely go for it.

If you don't want to go crazy with an old wine, or don't think the recipients will know / bother to research a recent wine, then a common "prestige" brand like Dom Perignon that sells for $100-$200 should do the trick, and might be just as impressive to a group of non-wine drinkers. <shrug>

+1. Penfold's Grange is a great wine, and people who know something (but not much) about wine should recognize the name and be impressed.

So to summarize (in order of preference):
1. Sauterne / Port / Champagne from 1962 (symbolic year) or 1961 Bordeaux (only if wine lovers) ($500-1000++)
2a. Great bottle of port (e.g. Penfolds "Great Grandfather") ($350)
2b. Chateau D'Yquem 2001 Sauterne - a sweet dessert wine that received perfect scores from nearly every critic. ($400)
2c. Prestigious red wine from "recent" (10-20 years old) vintage (only if wine lovers) ($100 - $1k++)
3. Dom Perignon 1996 / 2002 / current year - De-facto prestige champagne for non-wine drinkers ($300 / $160 / $200)

One of the best wines I ever had was a Penfolds Grange. I don't remember the vintage but it was late 70s/early 80s.

My anniversary year was 1986 and I bought about 2 dozen red bordeaux wines from that vintage. I still have some as they are a long-lived wines. While they are tasty - none have really knocked my socks off.

Anything that is old or unusual will be a hit. I'm guessing the anniversary couple will be pleased.

Get a 1962 Chateau D'Yquem. should have 50 more years of life.. :)

i have thought a bit about this over the weekend. wine is completely the wrong gift. expensive will not be appreciated. look elsewhere.

"2b. Chateau D'Yquem 2001 Sauterne - a sweet dessert wine that received perfect scores from nearly every critic. ($400)"

Good recommendation. We had this served with Foie Gras and lightly toasted white bread. A perfect combination :-) Perhaps a bottle of this and some FG shipped back to HKG....



Adey

if we're still going to do wine, and looking at sweet, i would recommend a Beerenauslese, or a Trockenbeerenauslese. a third choice would be one of those Coteaux du Layon chenin blanc things the sugar hunters chase. unbelievable wines.

Do you know if they even appreciate wine? The last thing you want is for them to uncork it, fill a couple of plastic cups, take a sip and go Ugh, and put it in the fridge for a few months.

Wine is a very tricky gift. Expensive wine is even harder, as the higher the value, the fewer people there are out there that can appreciate it.

I would never consider an expensive wine as a gift for somebody unless I knew their tastes and their comfort level with it.

Update: his sister prefers we pitch in to purchase Remy Martin XO for the party itself (1 bottle per table). They have reserved red wine for each table and adding Remy Martin XO is expected to please the couple. I suggested Dom Perignon but apparently they prefer XO (even thou the couple might not drink it). As the objective is to respect the family, I went with the flow.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions -- I've copied the text into a file offline that I will consult and use for future reference.

looks like they know more about wine than you thought. well over 50% of dom goes into advertising and promotion. it is a terrible value, unless free on the airplane.