Lowly IT guy buying a gift for CEO...

altmann

So I just got a job at a big company in D.C. I'm a personal friend of the CEO and that's how I landed it. It's a huge salary and it's a great job.

The CEO is really a wine guy, he's got a cellar and while he does buy a lot, he doesn't have a refined palate. I know this because my dad is a wine collector and is a consultant for the man (which is partially how i landed this gig).

I was thinking in the $100 range to get a gift for him to thank him for the job. I was thinking a nice bottle of champagne, but I was also thinking of maybe a nice bottle of brandy or scotch. Oddly enough, my father hasn't really been helpful in this area so I'm looking for some Winos to help me buy some first class liquor.

Any suggestions?

iTunesIsEvil

For a ~$100 bottle of champagne I would recommend Veuve Clicquot.

[edit] Just a heads up: whoever put the Veuve site together thought that Flash was the be-all, end-all way to put a website together. =P

imbalanced

If he's a wine guy, I suggest you get something from the Northern VA wineries. There are a bunch of them. They have an annual wine festival out in the sticks, and while you won't be able to visit it in time for the gift, you should be able to look through the list of vendors and pick something suitable. I always like sending something local as opposed to some name brand liquor/wine. He can probably buy the best of the best of whatever he wants anyway.

http://www.virginiawinefestival.org/

My recommendation, Chrysalis seems to win a lot of awards every year and has decent wines. I ended up going and only testing one particular wine so my taste buds wouldn't get confused (I was looking at apple wines for the lady friend).

http://www.chrysaliswine.com/

Edit: I think I ended up buying the NV Applause Apple Wine from Willowcroft Wine or the Mountain Apple Wine from Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery (they're both white wines). There were a lot of them to chose from, but I liked the one that tasted more like a granny smith apple.

an_alt

iTunesIsEvil wrote: »

For a ~$100 bottle of champagne I would recommend Veuve Clicquot.

I'll second that. It's a great Champagne and defintely worth the money.

Fantasma

Italian Red Wines, such as Chianti Classico would be a good selection, but I don't know if you will find it for US$100.00

P.S.

http://www.chianticlassico.com/english/home.htm

apotheos

altmann wrote: »

Any suggestions?

Ask your dad.

Seriously. It sounds like he's close to the issue and has more knowledge of the issue than most of us.

JPArbiter

two things about wine

1) Expensive does not equal refined. I have imbibed a glass of extremely fine and well aged Pinot, and thought it was way to bitter, and then had a 2002 a couple of weeks ago from california, and thought it be just right

2) Taste in wine is like taste in sexual partners, it varies from person to person, and with the weather. if you wish to purchase you new boss a bottle or three, ask him what he likes. it is perfectly acceptable in this situation.

Thanatos

Does the man buy a lot of wine, or does he drink a lot of wine?

If he drinks a lot, you can just buy him a case of decent stuff, instead of getting him one $100 bottle.

The standard for $100 champagne is Cristal, though.

saggio

Try to get some Ice Wine.

KingMoo

saggio wrote: »

Try to get some Ice Wine.

most people I know don't like ice wine. It's hella sweat

Kid Cranium

If you haven't already, you should check your company's code of conduct. Almost all companies have one and they frequently have specific provisions around gifts for superiors/coworkers and such -- even if they're personal friends. You don't want to get into hot water over an innocent gift and jeopardize your new job.

A coworker of mine received a $100 American Express gift certificate dealy from one of her end-users and ran it through HR first to make sure it was ok. Corporations can be as bad as the NCAA when it comes to "ethics" violations.

Sonos

iTunesIsEvil wrote: »

For a ~$100 bottle of champagne I would recommend Veuve Clicquot.

[edit] Just a heads up: whoever put the Veuve site together thought that Flash was the be-all, end-all way to put a website together. =P

i agree with this as its my favorite champagne but buying champagne for another man is kind of odd to me. it's more of a date drink imho. hard liquor like scotch is what men give each other as gifts. sadly, I am not a fan so I have no suggestions.

supabeast

Go to a good wine store and have the people working there recommend a good bottle in your price range. This will save you from two annoying problems common to buying expensive wine:

1. Finding out that nobody has the vintage you want.
2. Finding out that everyone was just buying it because Robert Palmer gave it a rating it didn’t deserve.

Whatever you do, don’t do what someone else recommended and get him Virginia wine because it’s local. Virginia wine is generally considered crap here in DC, in fact, it’s become so bad that it’s hard to find in stores and restaurants because the worst wines from just about anywhere else are better than the best stuff from Virginia.

If you really dig sparklies, get him a few bottles of Mumm Napa Grand Cuvee. It’s the best sparkling white wine produced outside of France and the winery is a popular spot for vacationers in Napa.

Djeet

Buying wine for a collector is hard, different palates and whatnot, and he probably has all the wine gizmoes he'd ever want. Maybe get him a nice scotch (Lagavulin Distiller's Reserve perhaps).

Cliquot is good (I think) though it is kinda dry (I also like), so if he prefers sweeter or fruitier then he may not appreciate it.

Italian -> Gattinara region, a Barbaresco or Barolo, or other Piedmont wines using the Nebbiolo grape. Nobile grape is also nice, you could probably get a '95 Nobile de'Montepulciano for that money. 95, 97 were really good years at least for Italian wines (I think French too).

French -> Bordeaux: Pauillac or St. Emilion

American -> Pinot Noirs I guess, I don't drink too much Ameirican, I like Russian River Valley.

And I only listed reds, don't like whites other than bubbly. If someone got me a nice white, I'd pobably cook with it.

Thanatos

Djeet wrote: »

American -> Pinot Noirs I guess, I don't drink too much Ameirican, I like Russian River Valley.

And I only listed reds, don't like whites other than bubbly. If someone got me a nice white, I'd pobably cook with it.

Russian River Valley is excellent, big on Pinots and Zinfandels. Not as many $100 as you'd expect, though. There's a good one out of Sonoma county called "Thumbprint," that's small enough that he may not have heard of it, with $50 a bottle wine. You could get two of those.

arcath

Kid Cranium wrote: »

If you haven't already, you should check your company's code of conduct. Almost all companies have one and they frequently have specific provisions around gifts for superiors/coworkers and such -- even if they're personal friends. You don't want to get into hot water over an innocent gift and jeopardize your new job.

A coworker of mine received a $100 American Express gift certificate dealy from one of her end-users and ran it through HR first to make sure it was ok. Corporations can be as bad as the NCAA when it comes to "ethics" violations.

Cant stress this enough.

SeñorAmor

You also might want to check out http://wine.woot.com/ as they have some damn good deals on damn good wine.

GrimmyTOA

The Veuve suggestions above were good. I think you'll find it comes in at significantly less expensive than $100, too. I usually find it around where I live for about $65 CDN. If you want to push out the boat a bit more, get him a bottle of Dom Perignon. It's good. It's substantially more expensive than Veuve, though.

Of course, buying a bottle of wine (or any gift, really) for a new boss seems a bit... I dunno. Not criticism of you, by any means, just...

Evil_Reaver

arcath wrote: »

Kid Cranium wrote: »

If you haven't already, you should check your company's code of conduct. Almost all companies have one and they frequently have specific provisions around gifts for superiors/coworkers and such -- even if they're personal friends. You don't want to get into hot water over an innocent gift and jeopardize your new job.

A coworker of mine received a $100 American Express gift certificate dealy from one of her end-users and ran it through HR first to make sure it was ok. Corporations can be as bad as the NCAA when it comes to "ethics" violations.

Cant stress this enough.

I'm going to third this.

You don't buy your boss a gift for non-gift giving occasions, especially if it's for him giving you a job. If your co-workers found out that you bought him an expensive bottle of wine after being given the job, it won't take long for people to start talking about you. We all know office politics and drama are bad, so you'd be wise to avoid a situation like this.

Rhino

Another little trick is to get something "local" to your hometown. There is this one whinery about 50 minutes from the place I grew up. It's decent whine, it's cheap and something most people haven't heard of. I can get a case for cheap and it looks like I paid a fortune for it, but really I don't pay that much.

It makes it stand out and plus you can give a little story about it like "Yea, they use sheep shit instead of cow mature to fertilize the grapes... most people think it has a earthy taste to it, but it's really more like wool... you know; from the the sheep".