Bottle royale

SPLURGE She may be on a first-name basis with Binny’s employees, but your wino friend probably hasn’t tried concocting her own vintage. Send her to Bev Art’s wine-making school to learn the step-by-step process in two classes (held at the Lakeview or South Loop Whole Foods or at Bev Art’s Beverly headquarters), where she’ll experience everything from aging and adjusting tannins to hand-filling the bottles and customizing the labels. $85 per person, $95 per couple; additional $70–$175 for ingredients for six gallons of wine.

BUDGET Help your sipping, swilling friend brush up on his wine vocab by giving him a gift certificate to one night at BIN School at winecentric restaurant BIN 36. (Maybe he’ll invite you to join him for an after-school drink at the bar, when he can take advantage of the 20-percent discount.) $36.

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