Holiday Shopping Guide--Booze

A classic gift is a nice bottle of something. That never really goes out of style, does it.

Now, Old Taylor may not be the most special of whiskeys, but this ad is great. This from October 25, 1954, Life:

In case you can't make out the text below the picture: "Inscribe your decanter gifts in 23 carat gold. With every carton of the Old Taylor Presentation Decanter, you will receive a leaf of genuine 23 carat gold. With it you can write your personal greetings directly on the decanter. Old Taylor in the Presentation Decanter costs no more than the standard bottle which is always available."

How cool is that? This certainly makes a bottle of whiskey quite special, doesn't it? Not only the pretty decanter, but being able to write on it in gold? Pretty nifty, I'd say. Of course, you'd have to buy a whole case to do that, but that would take care of a bunch of nice individualized gifts.

There are vintage bottles (regular bottles, not decanters) on Ebay with the whiskey in them, if you so choose. There are also a couple of old decanters (empty), but they don't look quite as nice as the one in this ad. Of course, you can always choose your own tipple of choice and make it a signature gift. Craft stores sell gold leaf pretty cheaply, so a plain glass decanater could be dressed up nicely.

I love Maker's Mark, if anyone's asking!

Cheers!