Everyone has their personal wine producer: For each wine region, there’s someone you know, love and trust. You walk into a store or restaurant and long to see the name on a bottle or a list; and when you do – your heart skips a beat. Your palate screams to see that delicious liquid cascade into your glass.

Wine makes an elegant statement as a gift; it also conveys appreciation. Honor Dad this Father's Day with a nice bottle - one that he wouldn't necessarily buy for himself. Shopping for a gift such as this should be fun - you may approach from a thematic perspective, such as, "Favorite Wines/Varietals," to "If Dad were a wine, he would be..." to "We share a love for this Book/Movie/Location and it's represented in this bottle."

You can also turn the tables and select a varietal that he may not have tried, thus making you the teacher and he the student! Most of all, have fun together.

The smell is unmistakable: rich, dense yet bright, raisinated but fresh. Is it Amarone? A sip shows that it doesn’t have the requisite heft. But it haunts, a smell like no other. Tasting this wine for the first time blind, with no idea of from when or where it came, I had no clue: Valpolicella. 1999. Giuseppe Quintarelli.

Red wine, high in tannins and iron can often be overpowering, and the lingering taste can mettle with more subtle flavors in fish. One study has found that the iron content in wine actually brings out undesirable flavors in fish, reminiscent of rot. But in many cases throughout one study, researchers paired bold reds and weak seafood: think Bordeaux and scallops.