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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #19: Mendoza Nights Malbec (Argentina)
Wine critics and wine judges have devised some entertaining shorthand terms for awful wine. Scrawled in the margins of a notebook or whispered under your breath to a colleague, they allow a taster to diss a wine without offending the pourer. Good ones that I’ve heard recently include FJ (“Fruit Juice”), TD (“Termite’s Dream”–meaning that…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #18: Aralena Pinot Grigio delle Venezie (Italy)
A very merry December 1st! Today is the day that good and patient boys and girls can begin opening their advent calendars to behold the first of the treasures hidden within. But at The Wine Fairy, we are neither good nor patient. So tonight it’s time for Bottle #18 from the Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar:…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #17: Cielo d’Oro Carménère (Chile)
Carménère is one of those wines that people either flee from or embrace. Appreciating this long-banished Bordeaux grape takes practice. (Or blending!) Dark red in color, full of chewy tannins, and often packing intensely vegetal flavors, it’s not likely to be selected as anyone’s house wine or wedding-table tipple. In fact, this is the first…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #16: Starlight Wonder Chenin Blanc (Western Cape, South Africa)
December is almost upon us, and there are still eight wines lurking in the Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar crate. Will we get to them all before the holidays, or will we get sidetracked by other seasonal treats like Glühwein and Beaujolais Nouveau? Who even knows? But today, we’re back on task. We’re tasting the lone…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #15: Flutter Rosé (Aude, France)
Fifteen wines into the 2025 Costco advent calendar, and finally we uncover a rosé! Thank goodness. I know it’s almost winter, but I will never turn down pink wine, no matter the season. The package of Flutter Rosé is appealing, too–its millennial-friendly label swathed with dusty pink, tasteful foil accents, and Luna moths. But will…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #14: Solo Reflections Chardonnay (Australia)
Another day, another Chardonnay! I’m busting out my best stemless glassware for a casual pour from Down Under, the 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar‘s wine #14: Solo Reflections Chardonnay. It’s well-chilled–and I’m ready to be well-chilled, too. Costco wine can help with that. No thinking, just drinking. But is Solo Reflections a wine that likes…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #13: Latitude 44 Pinot Noir (France)
A savage wine review is a delightful thing. I run across them most often on Reddit. Usually it’s written by someone who doesn’t like wine very much–and often, by someone who has resorted to drinking wine after running out of hard liquor. “Chewed raisins,” “prison toilet hooch,” “liquid vanilla candle.” (Or my new favorite natural…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #12: Blue Seirína White Blend (Greece)
The half-bottles keep comin’ and they don’t stop comin’! I’m now halfway through tasting all the wines in the 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar. It’s taken longer than I thought. (In truth, there’s better stuff to drink most evenings.) But at this rate, I’ll still be done with the reviews well before Christmas Day. Tonight’s…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #11: Baciato dal Sol Red Blend (Italy)
“What’s the house wine?” you ask, glancing over the menu. “It’s red or white,” the server replies. And if, despite your trepidation, you go ahead and order the red wine, you’re likely to end up with a glass a lot like this one, the Baciato dal Sol from Costco. It’s the epitome of mystery red…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #10: Vin Twenty Three Red Blend (Côtes du Rhône, France)
The quest to taste all the Costco advent calendar wines continues! Next up is Bottle #10, a Côtes du Rhône blend called Vin Twenty Three. The label descriptors for these bottles are mostly breathless, AI-generated slop. But perhaps they may be valuable to someone who is trying to decide whether they will like this wine,…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #9: Ryokō Futsu-shu Sake (Japan)
Let me begin by saying that I am sorry for my sake ignorance. I do not know very much about sake, nor have I yet learned to appreciate it. Sure, I’ve sipped premium versions at trade tastings and such, and I’ve approached them with the same curiosity I’d extend to any other beverage. But at…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #8: The Conductor Chardonnay Pays d’Oc (France)
What if wine was more like groceries? What if it was just another foodstuff–a staple of shopping lists and a part of healthy adults’ daily diets? Many folks, particularly those in the wine industry, believe that would be a good thing. The United States has one of the lowest per capita wine consumption rates of…