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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #7: Queen’s Gambit Zinfandel (California)
I’m ripping into the Costco advent calendar early, like a naughty kid at Christmastime. Except my advent calendar is full of wine instead of candy, and there’s no grown-ups here to scold me. Today I’m pouring up Bottle #7, “Queen’s Gambit.” But is this California Zinfandel fit for a queen, or should it be banished…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #6: A Seaworthy Tale Grüner Veltliner (Pannon, Hungary)
Grading for the 2025 advent calendar has been a bit harsh so far, with this year’s class of bottles struggling for a C average. But that was not my intention when I first carried that colorful cardboard box over the threshold. Believe it or not, I’m not a wine snob out to savage every bottle…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #5: Concentric Circles Red Blend (Australia)
Welcome to another Costco wine advent calendar review! This is an ongoing feature at The Wine Fairy where we annoy our palates (and possibly ruin Christmas) by tasting through a whole case full of random half-bottles this September and October. Today’s wine is the Concentric Circles Red Blend from Australia. It’s a dry red medley…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #4: Sheep Station Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is arguably the biggest commercial success story the wine industry has seen in decades. Millennials–including the Wine Fairy household, to be honest–just can’t get enough of its zingy tropical flavors. The Marlborough style is easy to enjoy: No aging, no corkscrew, no swirling required. You will not find a restaurant or…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #3: Champs de Foin Cabernet Sauvignon (Pays d’Oc, France)
Behind door #3 of the 2025 Costco wine calendar is…gasp! Could it be? A normal wine? So far, we’ve had a ripasso and a flavored white sangria inside the mystery box. Now, we’re getting back to basics with a regular old dry red wine from France: The Champs de Foin Cabernet Sauvignon. The appellation on…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #2: El Campeón White Sangria (France)
Round Two of the Costco Wine Advent-ure is about to begin: El Campeón White Sangria. But is this bottle a champion, my friends? We’re about to put it to the test and find out. “Grape Wine with Natural Flavors” reads the back of the label…and that’s usually not a marker of a wine of quality.…
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Costco Advent Calendar Wine #1: L’Artiste Ripasso (Italy)
Last year, I got the Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar around Thanksgiving, hoping to taste all the wines before December 25. But wouldn’t you know it? The busy-ness (and booziness) of the holiday season intervened, and I fell too far behind. I forgot I had a wine fridge full of half-bottles. I ended up drinking most…
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It’s here! The 2025 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar
Santa’s wine elves must have been working overtime this year. The Costco wine advent calendar is ready–and it’s only Labor Day Weekend! We don’t grumble about Christmas creep where wine is involved. Holiday wines are an absolute joy…from German Glühwein to little glasses of Port by the fireplace. The earlier they’re in stores, the longer…
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The trippy AI wine art of Flying Blue Imports
Costco sells a wine advent calendar, which we reviewed back in December. The wines are generally pretty good. But the video marketing materials that accompanied them are nothing short of a surrealist masterpiece. Today we’re looking at samples from the vast AI art dump that accompanied the 2024 calendar release. The wines are by Flying…
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Review: Costco’s Marquis de Bern Bordeaux Supérieur (plus my top-secret lamb shank recipe)
Wines with castles and knights on the labels are fancy. That’s a wine fact. And cheap Bordeaux is always preferable to no Bordeaux. That’s a wine fact, too. Both facts were on my mind when I cautiously opened this bottle of Marquis de Bern Bordeaux Supérieur. My cellar (read: lower bar cabinet) records are a…
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What Is This Thing? Tinto de Sol Calimocho
Welcome to the first installment of What Is This Thing?, in which we try odd bottles from the periphery of the world of wine. Today I’m tasting Tinto de Sol Calimocho. Is it wine? The label helpfully describes it as an “aromatized wine-product cocktail.” So, yes? Let’s get into it! Calimocho (also spelled Kalimoxto) is…
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Review: The Costco Wine Adventure Calendar (2024)
Update: Costco’s 2025 calendar is out now! Peek inside the box here. Or, if you’re curious about what the wines taste like, check out our archive of reviews from the 2025 Wine Advent-ure Calendar. As every suburban wino knows, the wholesale club Costco can be a reliable source for better-than-drinkable wine at rock-bottom prices. The…