As the New Year approaches, I like to think that each year is unique, with its own milestones. In that spirit, I will be welcoming in 2012 with a Champagne that is also unique.

Thursday is Champagne Day around the globe—a 24 hour excuse to pop a bottle of the real deal—the kind that comes from the Champagne region of France—and raise a glass to celebrate anything at all.

In the advertising business (where I began my career) brand strategists are always looking to promote their clients’ “unique selling proposition"—some quality of the product (be it real or imagined) that sets it apart from the pack. The marketers of Champagne—long associated with celebration, romance, and sophistication— understood this concept way before Madison Avenue’s heyday.

They say that Winston Chuchill fought for it and Marilyn Monroe took a bath in it. Whatever you do with the Champagne that you don’t drink this New Year’s, don’t let it languish indefinitely in your fridge waiting for a special occasion.

If you think that your favorite wine drinker needs a titanium-handled, battery-charged corkscrew perhaps you are overlooking some basics that every wine lover can use and some non-essentials that add a little interest.

Following are some last-minute gifts to consider.

My husband is the chef in our house. I do two things in the kitchen. One of them involves a corkscrew.