7 of the Best Boozy Fathers' Day Gifts AND a Father's Day Giveaway!

Gifts for Dads can be trickier than you'd think. Despite what the greetings cards try to imply, every Dad is different, and most years I find myself thinking long and hard about what I can buy that will truly show I've thought about what he - my unique and wonderful Papa - would really want.

I mean, a lot of the specific Fathers' Day gifts can be a bit generic. Oh, you got me a car washing kit again? Cheers. We all know he has enough cuff links, wash bags, slippers and ties. And despite what John Lewis tells you, he probably doesn't want mustard as a thank you for another year of Dadly duties, you awful person.

One thing most of the Dads I know - mine especially - will always be grateful to receive is something boozy. Especially if it's not something they'd necessarily think to splash out on themselves. Here are some of my best boozy picks for Fathers' Day:

1. Vinturi - a fancy, classy wine aerator for wine-loving Dads

These gadgets are very cool to have around the house and I know my Pa would love to show one of these off at our next Sunday lunch. It's a wine aerator - which basically means it does the same job as a decanter - but instead of pouring the whole bottle into the decanter (which could then get too much air before you get around to drinking it and be waste of good wine) you pour the wine through the Vinturi and straight into your glass.

This means you only use what you need to (and the rest of the wine stays in the bottle with less oxygen getting at it - especially if you Vacuvin it) BUT it also means your wine gets 'decanted' in super-quick time! No more fretting about how long before the meal/your guests' arrrival you should open the bottle - you just pop the cork when you're ready to drink, pour, and the wine is fully aerated by the time it swirls into your glass. That's nifty.

If you want to grab one for your Pops (or yourself...) you can pick one up at Lakeland or The Present Finder for £39.99. And we have a Vinturi to give to one lucky winner courtesy of Root7.com - see the end of this post for more details!

2. Corkcicle beer and wine coolers

Remember Kate told you about corkcicles a couple of months ago? They're still top of our gadget list for those times a friend pops over and you haven't got any chilled wine (bing! Pop the corkcicle in and 5 minutes later you're sorted!) but did you know they also do Chillsner beer coolers too? These guys have all the bases covered...

A few of the Vinspire team have used these and they really are as good as they sound - and, as Kate pointed out, they're perfect as an ice-bucket alternative when you're chatting over dinner and want to keep a cool bottle nearby.

Corkcicles are widely available - try your local department store if you're out and about - but one of the cheapeast places you can get them online is Firebox - the corkcicle is £19.99 and the Chillsner beer cooler is £24.99 for two. 

3. Grow Your Own

The 'gin, tonic and a lemon tree' gift went down massively well in my Christmas gin gift roundup - and now you can buy a 'grown your own grape vine' gift set from The Gluttonous Gardener on Not on the High Street. It's £44.

Or, you can buy a 'grow your own beer plant' gift from Plants from Seed (also NOTHS), which means your Dad can grow a nice, beery-smelling hops and then use it to make his own brew. It's only £9.99 too...

4. Personalised Four Pint Magnum of beer

I love Best of British Beers, and their personalised magnum of beer is well up there on the list of reasons why. It's £21.50 and comes in a variety of designs which you can personalise for your very own Pa. The Chillsner might be a *little* on the small size for this bottle but that's an experiment I'd be happy to conduct...

5. More beer stuff

Well, we really covered a huge amount of amazing beer gifts at Christmas (nearly all of which are still available) but I did think it was worth mentioning something daft and inexpensive like this God Save the Beer apron for all the many summer barbecues your Pa will inevitably attempt and quite possibly ruin because they've drunk too much beer.

Anyway, it's £21 from Catherine Colebrook.

6. Whisky stuff

With all the many styles of whisky on offer, it can be tricky to work out what on earth to buy your Dad, but we can help! Hugo has compiled a handy guide to different whisky styles and where to find them (it's a lifesaver...) and he also spends an awful lot of time tasting various whiskies so you don't have to fret about which ones are good. One of his best recommendations has been The Society's Exhibition Islay Single Malt which comes from an 'unnamed distiller' - Hugo is one of the few people alive to know which one it is, and helpfully told us that this means it's about a third to a fifth of the price it should be.

If you really want to hedge your bets, you can buy Master of Malt's Regions of Scotland Whisky Tasting Set which is £35.45 and comes with five mini samples of whisky from across the country, one of which is 40 years old!

7. Gin Tasting Set

As I said above, we have you covered when it comes to gin gifts, but I also found this very neat and purse-friendly little idea from Little Tipples: a gin tasting set!

It contains two 50ml bottles of two very different gins - that's around 4 gin and tonics' worth - and comes in a very pretty presentation box that fits through letterboxes (so you can take Dad down the pub instead of waiting in for deliveries). And it's only £12.50!

Or if you're looking for just one special bottle - I honestly can't recommend the Seaweed Gin or Warner Edwards enough!

So that's plenty of boozy Fathers' Day gifts to go on - but we're feeling particularly generous today and want to give you a chance to win a Vinturi wine aerator (worth £39.99!) in our Fathers' Day giveaway! To enter, please just do any (or all!) of the following:

• Share this post on Twitter using the hashtag #VinspireVinturi or retweet our giveaway tweet.

• Like the giveaway post on our Facebook page and comment underneath telling us what you or your Dad's favourite wine is.

• Comment under this post telling us you or your Dad's favourite wine!

The competition is open until Tuesday 10th June at noon - we will pick an entry at random and announce the winner by Wednesday 11th June. Good luck!

(Small print: This giveaway is only open to UK residents (sorry, overseas readers!) and entrants must be aged 18 or over. The giveaway closes at midday on Wednesday 11th June and late entries will not be accepted under any circumstances. You may enter once each on Twitter and Facebook, but any further entries will be disqualified. The Vinturi was donated to Vinspire by the lovely guys at Root7 - unfortunately, none of the Vinspire team is eligible to win the prize. The winner has 24 hours to come forward, or we'll give the prize to someone else (sorry!) If you have any questions, feel free to email us.)