Excerpted from Santa’s Nice ListBy Francis Sanders, our winemaker and wine geek at Wines for Autism and Geerlings & Wade

CHP027, $39.99 Jean Velut, Brut Tradition, Champagne, Tradition A tiny, family-owned farm in the village of Montguex - every small winery and hand-crafted wine cliché applies. Forward-thinking Champagne Jean Velut patriarch Denis Velut is even sending his sons to Cal Davis to better learn the New World side of the business. This 80/20 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir blend, the winery’s flagship, delivers consistency plus value, particularly considering the enormous effort involved in making each bottle of Champagne. Plus it earns awards up the wazoo. Velut is affordable elegance, and makes any occasion an event. Perfect with unusual textured foods – have the elves prepare some soups and quiches as part of our post-Christmas-Eve menu. And make sure there’s plenty of the world’s most romantic beverage on hand for some late night quality time with Mrs Claus.

BUR564, $21.99 2007 Vingnerons des Terres Secrtes, Chai Prisse, Macon Villages, Burgundy, France. Sometimes you just want something from the ancestral & spiritual home of the varietal – in fact, this is produced not far from the historic village of Chardonnay. Enough about unoaked or naked Chardonnays as something new & different – this is the region that invented the concept! Plus anytime I can score a bottle with some fruit sourced from the Macon La Roche-Vineuse site, the wine’s gonna be definitive in style - vibrant , pristine apple, pear and nutty flavors that perfectly exhibit the terroir, especially the clay and limestone soil. Perfect for Santa’s world-famous shellfish course – have the elves prep some oysters to make sure I’m really ready for Mrs.Claus.

ITA648, $17.99 2004 Sorelli, Chianti Classico, GW Cuvee, Italy Almost everything good about Tuscan food, wine, art & culture is in this one affordable bottle. An award-winning, exclusive-to-Geerlings & Wade cuvee, in a classic vintage, from the region that made Chianti serious again, by a family that’s been doing it the right way now for over a century. I’ll even forgive them for their flower power-type label – these specific vines were planted in the late 1960’s and their marketing head must have worked for NPR at one time – not everyone’s life on the planet was changed by Woodstock. If it were my label I’d rather equate the Uffizi with Florentine culture… Have the elves pound some veal medallions into submission.

Sorelli family: nice, Sorelli family label guy: leave him a late 60’s vintage reindeer turd.

CHI118, $14.99 2006 Paseo Reserve, Carmenere, unfiltered, Maule Valley, Chile Gone are the days when Chile only meant cheap to the American public… Chile does lots of things well, but they do Carmenere best. The seventh generation of the del Pedregal family continues to improve upon the family legacy at Vina Carta Vieja. When this wine was first unveiled at a trade function the elves & I attended, the other Chilean producers present, unsolicited, to a man, told us we just scored the best affordable Carmenere in Chile. It looks and drinks like Merlot, with a far more interesting, rustic, earthier flavor profile, all smoke and ash, red and black fruits - and the signature grape from Chile remains a much better value. Have the elves grill up an assortment of sausages.

NAP962, $19.99 2006 Bommarito, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, California Affordable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, in a screw cap, from Whitehall Lane, one of the highest profile alternative closure champions. The “Whitehall Lane Cab for the masses” is named for Napa Valley pioneer Dominic Bommarito. This 90/10 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend delivers bold, concentrated currant, cassis, “dried raisin” and cherry fruit, surrounded by a nice, toasty vanilla component (catnip for humans), derived from 15 months in American oak. Have the elves grill up some that aged beef the cattle guys tried to bribe me with. Winemaker Dean Sylvester and the Leonardinis: nice.