Not just a bottle

Anyone can send a bottle of wine. What makes this different from a trip to the wine shop is what comes with it: chocolate worth eating slowly, single-origin honey from Hedene and Corsican biscuits made under PDO. Everything here is something we import ourselves, chosen to suit the wine rather than picked off a list. A serious bottle. At this level the wine is most of what you are paying for, and the food beside it is there to do it justice rather than to bulk the box out.

The wine

Ferreira Vintage Port. We buy our wine through a merchant rather than a supermarket supply chain, which is why the bottles in these gifts are grower’s wines and estate bottlings rather than own-label. If you want a different bottle at the same price, tell us when you order and we will swap it.

Who makes it

Hedene are a Paris house who buy single-origin from named beekeepers rather than blending. Charles Antona work in Corsica, under PDO, from fruit grown on the island. Les Florentins have been in Lyon since 1912. You can read how the protected designations work at the European Commission.

Packing and delivery

We pack this in a 14-inch wicker hamper finished with raffia and a ribbon, the bottle wrapped and braced so it travels safely. Packed by hand in Worcestershire on the day it leaves us. We deliver across mainland UK and can send it straight to the recipient with a handwritten card and no prices anywhere in the parcel. Someone over eighteen has to sign for it. See the rest of the range on our port gifts page.

How to serve it

Port keeps for weeks once opened if it is a tawny, days if it is a vintage. Serve it slightly cool rather than at room temperature.