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Tasting the 2026 Costco holiday wine calendar: Wines #19-24
File this project under “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” A whole case of $4 mini wine bottles and a self-imposed Halloween deadline–what could go wrong? Your fearless tasting team at The Wine Fairy has powered our way through the entire 2026 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar. Now, all that’s left to do…
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Merlot Thursday: Rombauer Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot (2023)
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published a feature titled “Two Decades After ‘Sideways,’ Merlot Is Ready for Redemption.” It’s the latest in a growing pile of “Merlot is back, baby!” journalism. In January 2026 at The New York Times, chief wine critic Eric Asimov included the varietal in his annual roundup of overlooked wine categories…
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Champagne Barons de Rothschild: Bordeaux’s legacy meets Champagne’s future
Bordeaux and Champagne may be worlds apart in style, but they share a common toolkit: blending expertise, and the patient art of aging. These values were the inspiration behind Champagne Barons de Rothschild, founded in 2005 as a collaboration between all three branches of Bordeaux’s historic Rothschild family. Both regions treasure the specificity of their…
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Merlot Thursday: Murphy Goode California Merlot (2023)
I think and talk constantly about what makes a wine good. For a person whose wine life intersects the commercial, critical, and consumer spheres, a glass of juice is almost never just a glass of juice. But what if, once in a while, it could be? What if the little voice that’s always yammering on…
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Tasting the 2026 Costco holiday wine calendar: Wines #13-18
We have made it to the third installment of our Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar tasting marathon. Twelve bottles down, twelve to go! On the tasting table this week are the next six bottles, contestants #13-18: Before we go any further: I am not a wine snob. Sure, I think and talk about wine more than…
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Tasting the 2026 Costco holiday wine calendar: Wines #7-12
Welcome to another brutally honest review of the wines in the 2026 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar! In case you’re just joining us, we’re tasting all 24 wines in the Costco box. We’ve split them up into four batches of six. The least-bad wine in each grouping wins a prize: the honor of being paired with…
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Merlot Thursday: Oyster Bay Hawkes Bay Merlot (2024)
New Zealand’s Oyster Bay is best known for their juggernaut of a Sauvignon Blanc, so it may surprise some readers that they also make a Merlot. Opening this bottle feels a bit like ordering the burger at a seafood restaurant. A coin toss. It’s either going to be, “Wow–that’s the best burger I’ve ever tasted!”…
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Review: Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay (2024)
When serving wine, I get requests for “unoaked Chardonnay, please” about as often as a pub musician gets requests for “Tennessee Whiskey.” The backlash against buttery oak bombs is still going strong. Lucky for all of us, there are some woodless wonders coming out of Burgundy, including bright, minerally Chardonnays from the Mâconnais. This bottle…
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Merlot Thursday: Napa Cellars Merlot (2022) at GrapeFest
Happy #MerlotThursday from the 40th Annual GrapeFest in historic Grapevine, Texas. I took an early train this morning with one mission in mind: Find a Merlot and taste it before the sun goes down. I’m currently in the International Wine Experience garden, where wines from California and France are being poured in honor of the…
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Merlot Thursday: Markham Vineyards “Six Stack” North Coast Merlot (2023)
As Dallas continues to sprawl northward, newly-built steakhouses pop up along the Tollway overnight, like mushrooms. And, like a forager, I poke at them and turn them over. I’m looking for my next tasty prize: a new bottle for #MerlotThursday. J. Alexander’s has that odd, affluent-suburb combination of steaks and gooey sushi rolls, no happy…
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Merlot Thursday: Clos Pegase Napa Valley Merlot (2023)
A few things have happened since I started writing about Merlot every #MerlotThursday. First, I’ve gained a fresh appreciation for the variety and all its styles and nuances. Second, I’ve gotten better–not perfect, but better–at recognizing Merlot in blind tastings. And third, people have started to approach me with their Merlot stories. The last Merlot…
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Let’s unbox the 2026 Costco holiday wine calendar!
Today we snagged the 2026 Costco Wine Advent-ure Calendar! For the third year in a row, we’ll be tearing apart that bright blue cardboard and digging into a selection of international wines from the warehouse giant. Reviews posted so far: Wines #1-6: First-round reviews! Wines #7-12: Second-round reviews! Wines #13-18: Third-round reviews! Read on to…