Accessories to help you appreciate your wine

Wine is the drink of choice for many people during the holidays, especially on New Year's Eve.

What are they drinking?

Rosés are very popular again, said Christina Anderson-Heller, marketing director for Lynfred Winery, the award-winning vintner in Roselle.

And wine enthusiasts are interested in learning about varietals they haven't tasted before -- reds like Charbono and Petite Verdot and the white Viognier, for example.

A few carefully chosen accessories can enhance the wine experience.

A private label to commemorate a special event or gift is one of the features at Lynfred. Sorry, this is not wine produced just for you, it's a special label.

And wine bottles dipped in edible chocolate are well received, Anderson-Heller said.

Wine glasses are probably the most important accessory.

These are getting more and more interesting. Not only do they come in colors with bowls and stems of different shapes and sizes, but stemless glasses are catching on, too.

These are supposed to help demystify wine for younger folks.

Stemless glasses are no-frills and -- here's something we didn't think of -- they fit in the dishwasher, notes Crate & Barrel, which offers black stemless glasses for $2 each.

In the 1930s, the working-class people of Argentina's Patagonia region served wine in ceramic pitchers shaped like penguins and called pinguinos.

Maybe the table wine, which came in big barrels, wasn't as good as yours with the label you want to show off, but the pitchers are cute and a hit with tourists in that country.

Macy's sells replicas in the flea market on the lower level of the State Street store for $42.

You might want guests to see your wine's label, but you don't want that bottle to drip or condense on your table or cloth. Wine coasters and bottle collars help a lot.

If you want to serve each wine at just the right temperature, especially if you don't own a wine refrigerator, consider an electric chiller.

Waring makes one that chills or warms two bottles of different wines at the same time. It is $150 at Williams-Sonoma.

The machine displays the current and ideal temperature for each varietal, then gets the wine to that temperature.

A beep tells you it's ready, and it will hold your wine at the right temperature.

However, ready in minutes might be a bit misleading. It isn't like you can keep the wine on the rack all day and pop it in the chiller when it's time for dinner.

According to the instruction booklet, red wine, which should be at about 64 degrees, takes only 24 minutes from a 73-degree room temperature.

However, white wine would require 75 minutes to get down to 48 degrees.

And be sure to put the bubbly for New Year's Eve in early. If you want to drink it at an ideal 45 degrees, that takes 95 minutes.