Good gift for a novice wine maker?

[Contradictiion]

I'm currently starting to think about Christmas gifts for my step-grandfather right now. To say that he's taken up a passion for wine making is an understatement. Since he bought his kit about 2 years ago I think he's got at least 5-7 batches of wine fermenting at a time. He's done strawberry, raspberry, chokecherry, dandelion, blueberry, etc. He seems to have a decent kit and supplies now, and I can imagine that any book I'd buy him would probably cover things he already knows.

What I'm wondering is, what would some of you recomend to buy for an intermediate wine maker?

Any particularly useful or better quality equipment he may not have?

Is there such a thing as ordering grapes for small batches?

I will be visiting them over Thanksgiving so I'm going to pay close attention to what he has and probably ask him what the equipment does, just so I can get an idea of what he already owns.

 

[Luc]

In the low end price-range I would recommend an
auto-siphon if he does not already own one.

In the mid-end you could consider a refractometer
although it is a bit overpower when making kit wines.

In the high end I would consider a filter.

Luc

 

[Sacalait]

A gift certificate at a wine makers supply store will ensure that he can get what he needs when he needs it.

 

[Wade E]

If he is using a hand corker then get him a Portuguese floor corker or if you want to spend a little more the Italian floor corker is the best but the cheaper 1 is very nice and what I have used with no problems for over 200 batches now and still holding strong. You can never go wrong with extra carboys either, as a matter of fact, an extra carboy is usually not an extra carboy for long!

 

[Wray]

wine gadgets

If he is a fond of high tech gadgets you can get him a hand held infrared thermometer.He can survey multiple carboys in seconds.The Reed ST-882 can be had for a little less than $100.Just google it.They are said to be verry accurate.