Below, there are 5 basic rules, according to the Gift Etiquette, that the recipient should follow when receiving one or more bottles of wine as a gift.

What to do when you receive wine as a gift?

5 tips you should follow when someone gives you wine as a gift.

1. You must always say thank you

When you receive a gift you must always say "thank you" to the sender ... even if you do not like the gift!

When do you have to say "thank you"? Immediately after receiving the gift, when the gift passed from the hands of the sender to those of the recipient, before opening it. Imagine receiving as a gift a couple of bottles of wine in an elegant wooden box. As soon as the gift is in your hands, you have to say thank you to the sender. You can also say thank you after opening the gift, it is always a good practice, but you must say thank you even before opening the gift!

How to say "thank you"? What phrases to use to say "thank you"? Simply: "THANK YOU!" with a beautiful, authentic and unforced smile. You should avoid sentences like: "Why?" , "You shouldn’t!" etc. etc., which we often use when we give a gift.

If you receive wine as a gift with home delivery, it is good to thank the sender with a call, preceding the thanks with a sentence like "I just received the gift". This phrase conveys the idea that the first thing you thought about, as soon as you received the gift, was to call the sender to say "thank you".

In the case of gifts received from companies, the Gift Etiquette also admits an email in which you can thank the sender.

2. First, unwrap the gift

Among the golden rules about wine gift there is the one that provides that bottles must be included in special gift boxes. The recipient who receives a box of wine bottles as a gift, after saying thank you, must unwrap and open the gift box. For Gift Etiquette, receiving a gift and opening it later is bad practice.

There are some exceptions. In particular, in the case of a birthday party at which you receive multiple gifts you can decide to open gifts later.

Another interesting indication from the Gift Etiquette is the following: if you receive more gifts, you should not open them in the presence of everyone! Not everyone can afford gifts of absolute value and some gifts could be "personal". To avoid embarrassing the sender, you should unwrap and open the gift privately, only in the presence of the sender.

3. Read the greeting card then ...

The perfect gift must also have a greeting card! This rule is also valid when you decide to give wine as a gift. Inside the package you should always insert a card with a sentence, it is better if it is personal, and the indication of the sender.

After saying thank you to the person who brought you the gift and after opening the gift box, you should read the greeting card. It often happens that the recipient focuses on the gift itself, omitting to read the card or reading it later. For Gift Etiquette, first you should read the card, then you can take the wine in the gift box. The card often contains a personal message that must have priority over the material gift.

Avoid reading the message aloud, especially if there are other people around you. The sender may have written something personal that others don’t need to know. Read the message aloud only if the sender asks you explicitly or when there are no other people.

4. Ask the sender to open the bottle of wine immediately

According to the Wine Etiquette, if you receive wine as a gift you must propose to open the bottle immediately, sharing it with the sender. That would be very nice. Of course, if there is a dinner and the wine is not perfect for the menu, the sender will ask you to open the bottle on other occasions. If there are no problems with the food, it is good practice to serve the wine immediately!

5. Avoid posting gifts on social media

Not posting photos or videos of the gift on social networks is one of the most curious rules of Gift Etiquette. This advice is valid for both sender and recipient. For example, the sender may prefer the gift to remain secret or private, and not be made public on various social platforms.

If, instead, both the sender and the recipient want to publish the gift on social media, there are no problems.