Home »
News & Trends »
Featured Articles

What are your best-selling hostess gifts?

Brianne Holt The Wine & Cheese Place, St. Louis, MO
We dry roast and salt our own mixed nuts, pack them in decorative containers and gift wrap them. They are popular hostess gifts along with our mixed chocolate candy rounds and dried fruit rounds. If customers want to spend a little more, we offer wine and cheese gift baskets. My picks include:
• The Wine & Cheese Place mixed nuts
• The Wine & Cheese Place dried fruits
• The Wine & Cheese Place mixed candy
• Wine and cheese gift baskets

Sarah Freedman Izqueierdo, Epicure Market, Miami Beach, FL
We sell more single gifts than gift baskets. Our customers tend to choose sophisticated products. French olive oil or an Italian balsamic usually win over a tin of cookies. We have a sulla honey in a beautiful jar, estate chocolates or French dragées that are a great alternative to a bottle of wine. My picks include:
• Ritrovo’s Apicoltura dr. Pescia Sulla Honey
• Olive Tree Marketing Fondo Monte Bello Balsamic Vinegar
• Amedei Tuscan Estate Chocolate
• Crossings French Dragées

Glen Beech Dinah’s Cupboard, Toronto, ON
As an alternative to a bottle of wine, we feature a line of salad dressings that make great hostess gifts. Organic coffee is also popular, as well as teas packaged in tins. Doubloons shortbread cookies made locally are artistically and attractively packaged and make a great gift. My picks include:
• Dinah’s Cupboard salad dressing
• Taylors of Harrogate tea
• Kicking Horse Organic Fair Trade coffee
• Doubloons Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Kevin Toyama, R. Field Wine Co., Honolulu, HI
Cheeses are popular and fast-moving. Ironically, pungent but tasty French Epoisse is great at parties as well as cave-aged Gruyere. Pâté, high-quality Spanish wines that are reasonably priced and attractively packaged, or glacé fruits from Australia are also popular. My picks include:
• Simarloo Glacé Fruits
• French Epoisse cheese
• Cave-aged Gruyere
• Les Trois Petits Cochon Mousse Truffee (Truffle Mousse)
• Nora Albarino 2002, wine from Galicia, Spain

Kathryn Phelps Pasquarosa, Haddonfield, NJ
Top-shelf olive oil and balsamic vinegar make a great pair in a gift basket. We couple them in baskets or stainless steel colanders. Picnic at Ascot’s wine totes are popular as well as Ironwood Gourmet cutting boards that have matching bread knives. My picks include:
• Picnic at Ascot Thermal Wine Tote
• Ironwood Gourmet cutting boards
• Lettieri & Co. Barbera Frantoia Olive Oil
• Italian Products Montale ten-year-old Balsamic Vinegar