The host gifts worth bringing.

Boska has made cheese tools in the Netherlands since 1896, which is as close to a specialist as this category gets. The Copenhagen set is three knives: one for soft cheese, one for hard cheese and an all-purpose cheese knife, each cast in one piece of stainless steel.

One-piece construction is the point. There is no handle to crack, no rivet to work loose and nothing to rot in the dishwasher, so the set looks the same after years of cheese courses. It is the sort of thing most people mean to buy and never do.

Skip it for a host who already owns a good set, or one who serves cheese once a year. For them, the olive oil is the better gift.

Brightland's Awake is its most robust oil: early harvest, cold-pressed California Arbosana and Lecciana olives, in a 375 milliliter bottle coated to protect the oil from light. Brightland prints the harvest date and lists a polyphenol count of 290 to 350, which is high for a supermarket comparison.

Good olive oil is the model host gift. It is consumable, so it adds no clutter, but it is a clear step up from what most people cook with, and a host will think of you every time they finish a plate of beans or a bowl of soup with it.

Check the harvest date on the bottle before you buy. Olive oil is at its best within a year or so of harvest and fades after opening. Skip it for a host who is a serious cook and already buys oil by the tin.

NEST's Classic Candle is 8.1 ounces of its own blended wax in a glass vessel etched with frosted stripes, made in the United States and rated for 50 to 60 hours of burning. The empty glass keeps its looks for matches or pencils.

Scent is the risk with any candle gift, and NEST's range makes it easier to manage. The fresher scents, such as Sunlit Yuzu and Neroli or Bamboo, are the safest choice for a host you do not know well. Save the heavier holiday scents for friends.

Burn it long enough the first time to melt the whole surface, then keep later burns to a few hours, and the candle will burn evenly to the end. Pass that on if the host is new to good candles.

The Paris is Peugeot's classic mill, turned from PEFC-certified French beech and made in France. The u'Select version adds six preset grind settings, chosen by turning a ring at the base, from fine to coarse.

The mechanism is case-hardened steel, which Peugeot warrants for life. It cracks the peppercorn and then grinds it. The 9 inch size, sold as 22 centimeters, suits a table without looming over it.

Skip it for a host with a mill they love, or who cooks with pre-ground pepper and is not going to change. Peugeot makes salt mills that look nearly identical, so check the label says pepper.

Le Creuset's wine tools descend from the screwpull, the continuous-turn corkscrew that pulls a cork without levering. You center it on the bottle, keep turning, and the cork climbs out. Cork guides hold it straight, and the screw is hand-sharpened stainless steel with a nonstick coating, so it goes through natural and synthetic corks cleanly.

This compact version fits in a drawer and comes with a four-wheel foil cutter. It is a generous gift for a host who opens a lot of wine, and a quiet improvement on the waiter's friend in most kitchen drawers.

Skip it for a host who drinks mostly screw-cap wine, or who already owns a lever corkscrew. Hand wash only.

Coravin's Pivot replaces the cork with its own stopper and pours through it, filling the space left behind with argon so the wine does not oxidize. Coravin says an opened bottle keeps its flavor, color and aroma for up to four weeks. That changes how a household drinks: the good bottle no longer has to be finished the night it is opened.

The Pivot Plus kit includes the pouring device, two argon capsules, two stoppers, an aerator that attaches to the spout and a bottle sleeve. It is a real gift, suited to a housewarming, a thank-you after a weekend stay or a host who drinks wine one glass at a time.

Capsules are an ongoing cost, and the Pivot needs a conventional corkscrew to open the bottle first. Coravin's pricier Timeless models pour through the cork itself.