The Christmas holidays have arrived, along with the need to purchase gifts for friends and family back home.

Felipe Motta's Wine Store, the most complete boutique specializing in wines and spirits in Panama, offers a large number of attractive gift packages featuring wines from the best crops of Chile, Spain, Argentina, France, Italy and California.

Valérie Avila de Montulé, a representative of Felipe Motta's Wine Store, told The Visitor that the The Wine Store caters to all tastes and pockets.

According to Mrs. Montué, Chilean and Spanish wines are the most popular in Panama, due to their excellent quality, versatility and prices. One particular wine recommended for the holidays is the Albariño, a white wine produced in Galicia, Spain. Its fresh, versatile fruit flavor makes it excellent for seafood, white meats and traditional Chrismas buffets (Santiago Ruiz: $21.45).

For red wine afficionados, Mrs. Montué recommends the Cabernet Sauvignon wines by Concha y Toro ($29.50 per bottle) –a favorite among Chilean wine lovers-- and Marqués de Riscal Reserva ($15.95), for unconditional, Spanish wine connaisseurs, ideal for red Christmas meats.

This trendy boutique offers wines from the best cellars of Europe, North and South America, Israel, South Africa, Australia and New Zeland.

For more demanding tastes, Felipe Motta's Wine Store offers the Almaviva wines, the result of a joint venture between Chile’s Concha & Toro and France’s Baron de Rothchild –an excellent gift for $70.00 a bottle.

The Wine Store also offers a wide variety of accessories and champagnes. A bottle of La Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial, decorated with Swarovski crystals, would make a wonderful present this holiday season ($45.00). The store also offers cellars with capacity for 128 bottles ($1,298), and a "Rapid Chiller", which cools bottles in six minutes. Also available is a complete line of "L’Atelier du Vin" products, which includes a champagne bubble guard ($24.00), aroma developers, coolers and kits for wine tasting amateurs ($75.00).

On Tuesday, December 6, The Wine Store will hold a special shopping evening from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., featuring wine tasting and gift certificates.

Owned and managed by Felipe Motta, a well-reputed Panamanian business conglomerate, The Wine Store is located in Marbella, accross from the World Trade Center.

For more information, call: 302-6633.

Located in the mountains of Sorá, in the western sector of the province of Panama, Altos del María is one of the best country-style residential projects in Latin America. The project’s altitude (between 1,640 and 3,786 feet above sea level), assures a year-round day-time average temperature of 75 F and around 60 F in the evenings –the perfect setting for the growth of beautiful tropical flowers and evergreen trees.

Very few projects on earth offer residents panoramic vistas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, there is a lot more to Altos del María: nature trails, rivers, waterfalls and picnic facilities. All of this, surprisingly, is only a 20-minute drive from the best stretch of Pacific Ocean beaches in Panama, 20 minutes from one of the best golf courses in Latin America and an hour from Panama City, the country’s modern and bustling capital.

For more information, call: (507) 260-4813, fax: (507) 260-1557, or visit www.altosdelmaria.com