Because I have some friends who cannot follow simple directions (the ones that said "no gifts"), my husband and I are in possession of a $100 gift certificate to a wine shop, given for our 25th anniversary.

What to do with it? Yes, I know -- spend it. But how is the question. Stock up on inexpensive favorites? Blow it all on one bottle?

My husband and I both enjoy wine but would not consider ourselves wine experts. I asked some oenophile friends what they would do with this windfall.

Bill Daley, wine writer for the Chicago Tribune, surprised me. He wouldn't drop the whole wad at once: "If I got a $100 gift certificate, I'd probably go in and talk about buying five or six bottles. Tell the store what kind of flavors you like, what sort of meals you cook, what types of wine you've liked in the past. I think $20 wines are way less intimidating than one bottle of $100 vino. That $100 bottle will sit there, most likely, undrunk. The $20 wines will enliven your dinners."

An unexpected, but good, point. His comments reminded me of a gift last Christmas of a bottle of Champagne. It's still sitting in our "wine cellar" (a cabinet where I also store my roaster) because the giver told us it was very good Champagne, not to be put out for the hordes at the raucous party that was under way in our home at the time.

In the intervening months, somehow, an opportunity has not presented itself -- or we simply haven't been looking for the right occasion.

When I remembered that Champagne, I was so mad at myself. My mother was always putting away gifts that she deemed "too good to use," which was why I found sweaters, robes and pairs of pajamas, still in their gift boxes, in her dresser after she died.

I'm tempted to pop that cork right now. I don't want someone finding a good bottle of Champagne left in my house after I go to that big kitchen in the sky.

Bill's point is well taken, though. Conversely, there's the all-in school.

"I would buy one really great bottle of wine that I wouldn't normally buy. I would choose the wine, then plan a meal at home to go with it," said my friend Martha, a wine fan and port fancier.

And there are always the fence straddlers.

"The practical side of me would buy two bottles I like, both of which are up around the $50 mark: Rombauer Pinot and Rex Hill Pinot," said Jan Norris, food editor at the Palm Beach Post in Florida (who spilled a glass of very good red wine, which Bill had ordered, on me at a recent conference). "The 'it's found money, already, just blow it' part of me might wait until an occasion, then splurge on a bottle of fine Champagne. Finally, the very practical side of me might hold it until Christmas, and I'd buy gifts for others with it. I don't really like gift certificates, because I obviously have issues with decision-making."

For my father-in-law's 60th birthday, my husband and I got him a bottle of Dom Perignon. He wasn't a big wine fan, but what could we get for the man who had three of everything?

That was about 20 years ago, and the bottle of Champagne was around $60, as I recall. Naturally, my father-in-law waited until we could share it with him to open it. The main things I remember about the Champagne are how small and crisp the bubbles were, and the pale, ash-blond color of the wine.

As we sipped, the talk around the table was variations of: "Oh, we're drinking Dom Perignon." It was as much a gift of an experience as of a bottle of wine; something all of us there that evening could say we'd done but probably would not do again.

It's hard to separate the experience from the actual enjoyment of a three-figure bottle of legendary wine or an expensive meal at a famous restaurant. Think of people who book tables at star chefs' places just so they can say they dined there, and how many bottles of Cristal champagne ($350 to $1,100 a pop, pun intended) are sold because someone saw it in a music video.

Do I want to spend that gift certificate on wine that will enhance a meal and warm the conversation around my table, or on a roller-coaster ride that will become the center of attention? Roller coasters can be fun, sure enough.

This debate could go on forever. I can hear my redneck buddy Judy now, who would say something at this point like: "Moose, you're the only person I know who can turn a gift that gets you free wine into a philosophical discussion."

Nothing like a little perspective. I suppose I should let my husband have some say in the decision, since he has managed to hang in for a quarter-century. Otherwise, I can't really go wrong either way. Every day can, and should, be a holiday and it's five o'clock somewhere. It's time to sip and celebrate.

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