Here’s your list, a big boxful of gift bottles, all possible to find somewhere in town, though with varying degrees of ease. LDB specialty stores (now called Signature Stores), VQA stores, private wine shops, all those elusive boutiques—that’s where to start looking.

Go ahead, make a statement: it’s called U’Luvka and it’s the hot new thing in the coolest of spirits, vodka. Picking up on the Polish tradition of vodka-making (the Poles claim they did it first; they may be right), this is positioned as the “first true ultra-premium luxury vodka”. Translation: bring money; the tab is also the first true, top-of-the-heap price point in Canada, at $69. You’ll start seeing that pretty, pretty bottle all over town in the spring’s first garage sales.

Whisky lovers can’t get enough of Bruichladdich Islay Malt. (I keep vacillating between various Macallans and this, myself.) The stuff can be had in at least five configurations, for five budgets: cheapest is the 10-year-old ($75), followed by the 14-, 15-, and 20-year-olds (the last one labelled Flirtation), for $90, $95, and $200, respectively. And then, for the overachiever, the over-the-top Bruichladdich 40-year-old, to the tune of $2,260.85. I’d probably drop it on the way to the car…

Ice is nice: Jackson-Triggs Sparkling Riesling Icewine is out there, somewhere, in the $50-plus range (don’t forget, these are all little bottles—halves, or sometimes even smaller); Nk’Mip Cellars’ Riesling Icewine is $60; and Inniskillin Okanagan Vidal Icewine is $52.99. Plus about 30 more from all over the Okanagan, as well as Ontario; some are packed in wooden boxes, others in cardboard cylinders, and all look plenty appealing.

Take two—you can do it, and treat yourself after a strenuous evening of gift-wrapping to a regular-size bottle of Noval Unfiltered LBV Port 1999, most reasonable at $31.99. Rich, ?luscious, thoroughly satisfying, wonderful with all those seasonal treats like shortbread, nuts, dried fruit, marzipan, fruitcake, baked custard, plum pudding, and cheese, of course. Go and get a copy of the beautifully produced, detailed The Definitive Guide to Canadian Artisanal and Fine Cheese by Gurth Pretty (Whitecap Books, $29.95) and put it in the same gift bag.

You can never go wrong with champagne. The Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Particulière ($52.99) is a wonderful bit of bubble, with the added appeal of coming packed in a stiff rectangular box for ease of wrappage. Here’s ongoing proof of the superiority of this relatively recent, thoroughly authentic champagne marque on the world market. If you don’t know this brand, think of this as your introduction, ’cause it’s the cheapest of the 10 we have listed here, including a $200 pink.

Way down the price spectrum, we’re sipping lots of Lavit Brut Rosado, from Spain’s Segura Viudas—fresh, bracing and festive in pink, and only $15.49. If you’re agonizing over what to get me, don’t forget my all-time favourite remains Bollinger R.D., which, if it isn’t the world’s finest champagne, I’m prepared to arm-wrestle to the finish any pretenders to that throne. Modesty prevents me from naming the price, but it would cover eight of the aforementioned pinkies.

If you can still find some, nab a bottle of the Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate Proprietors’ Grand Reserve 2004, surprise winner of the world’s best Shiraz in London earlier this year; it shot out of the chute to the tune of $25 a couple of months ago and pretty much disappeared into thin air. You might have better luck locating another J-T wonder, though, the Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin 2004, which was only released a month ago, and anyway, there’s much more of it about than the 900 cases of the Shiraz. In fact, 18,500 six-bottle cases of Le Grand Vin were sent off to eager markets in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, priced at $40 per bottle. Mostly Merlot with Cabernet Sauvignon and minuscule amounts of Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc, it is a true Meritage-style wine, despite the fact that they’ve chosen not to call it that. Get as many as you, and your credit limit, can carry and stick some under the stairs. No peeking now, not for at least three years.

Take two Merlots and compare: one South Okanagan, one Napa Valley. Tinhorn Creek Oldfield’s Collection 2003 is winemaker Sandra Oldfield’s state-of-the-art Okanagan Merlot expression and a stunning wine in every way ($28). I’d be getting one for the gift basket and one for the cellar, and a third to compare with this newcomer: Parcel 41 Napa Valley Merlot 2004 ($33.99). Similarly stunning, this Californian is deep, inky, and intense, the Merlot putting the snide Sideways comments to flight forever.

Riesling lovers are a peculiar bunch; viz. your correspondent. They like little better than a comparison challenge too. So set these two in front of them—one from the Okanagan, the other from Niagara—and let them duke it out: the beautiful Lang Vineyards Riesling Farm Winery Reserve 2005 ($15.90 but good luck finding some) and the Cave Spring Cellars Reserve 2005 ($24.99). Both show rich, ripe, magnificent fruit, both are quintessential Rieslings, with all the luscious, honey-almond-and-hint-of-diesel complexities. Both are superbly made wines. One has a tiny edge—of something indefinable on the back palate. No, I refuse to say which one. Nor would I give one up at the expense of the other.

Just arrived in town this week—and sure to be sold out by the end of the year—is Canadian-born, internationally renowned success story Duesanti Tenuta S. Giovanni 2003, Winnipeg-based transportation magnate Pierluigi Tolaini’s first offering from his Tuscan winery, scooping 91 points in the international press. It sells here for $39.99, only a few cases came in—and are rapidly going out—and it’s already a collectors’ item, if only for the fact that it’ll be renamed next vintage due to a labelling conflict. But what’s inside the bottle is stellar stuff—another blazing super-Tuscan in that already-crowded firmament.

Stocking stuffer? Try the Wine Guys’ new one—Had a Glass: Top 100 Wines for 2007 Under $20 (Whitecap Books, $19.95). Same deal as last year—bright, brash, and breezy listing of a hundred faves “available at your local liquor store”, which is the part that counts. Like, you can use this book. Can’t figure out why they didn’t find that amazing Château du Parc, though…

Happy hunting.