Life

This Wine & Champagne Advent Calendar Is The Definition Of "Merry Christmas"

by Dara T. Mathis

Advent calendars are one of the coolest things about the lead-up to Christmas Day. While some families have a tradition of opening gifts on the eve of the big holiday, these creative boxes give you a surprise to look forward to each day leading up to Christmas. If wine brings you joy, this wine advent calendar from GiveThemBeer.com offers you 12 boozy opportunities to say cheers to the 2019 Christmas season.

GiveThemBeer.com is selling the festive red box full of reds, whites, or sparkling wines for $170 plus a $15 shipping fee. Each advent calendar comes with 12 secret windows that hide a half bottle of wine or a split of champagne in each compartment. If you want enough wine to cover you from December 1 through Christmas Eve, you could always buy two cases or ration each bottle to last two days (good luck). Each half bottle contains 375 milliliters of either red or white wine, and the splits of champagne have 187 milliliters, or about two glasses worth. Aldi sold a lot of their super popular advent calendar in 2018, reported KJ103, so there's clearly a market for them. It probably is in your best interest to snag yours early just in case these sell out as well, as the retailer will not be restocking this product. "Once they are gone, they are gone for a year," the site says.

The retailer promises the hidden goodies will be worth the cost, but they're keeping the variety of wines a surprise until you open them. Some of the wineries represented in the calendar include Coppola, Meomi, Mumm, Ruffino, Kendall Jackson and Stemarri, according to the website. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive. One enthusiastic customer even said the wines "exceeded expectations in quality and diversity." I can drink to that!

There are a few caveats you should know about before you get your wine glasses ready, though. Of course, you have to be 21 and older to purchase and ship the wine advent calendar to yourself or to a lucky friend or family member. A recipient of legal drinking age will need to show ID when the package is delivered. If you live in Alaska, Alabama, Hawai'i, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah, sorry. State laws won't allow the company to ship wine to you, so you won't be able to get these, but you could always check your local spirits store closer to the holiday season to see if they are offering anything similar. Although you can buy your calendar right now, orders will ship starting on November 18, 2019. GiveThemBeer.com assures they'll be shipped by late November, according to the site.

Grown-up Christmas is always merry when you have booze to go along with it. If you're sending the wine advent calendar as a gift, the retailer gives you the chance to write a cute printed message to go along with the case. It's a nice way to give the special wine enthusiast in your life some cheer for the holidays, even if that person just happens to you be you.