Costco’s Wine Advent Calendar Comes but Once a Year, Go!

Fast Facts:

• 2020 Edition Costco Wine Advent Calendar  ($97.99@Costco in California – Item #1480467)

So I was all set to pull the trigger on this week’s featured wine.  Before I could, I had to run to Costco to look for some fresh fish for dinner.  (Of course, I had to buy over three pounds for just two of us.  That made my local friends and family happy.  It was as if I had just returned from a fishing trip to Alaska. Fish for everybody! But I digress.)

Act now!

Of course, no trip to Costco is complete without a careful cruise through the wine section.  There, just beyond all the Christmas decorations in September, was Costco’s annual Advent Wine Calendar. I have heard of this mythical “mystery case” in past years but had never seen one in captivity. That’s because it always sells out really, really fast so I decided it HAD to be featured quickly, so here we are.

Did I mention that it sells out fast?

Tasting notes? Nope.

Excuse us for not tasting through 24 different wines, but like I said, we wanted to get this to you before the bloody thing sells out again. Besides, other bloggers have sampled some of the bottles have had generally favorable reports.

What a fun product this is.  You get 24 unique wines made all over the world, from familiar and less familiar wine producing countries. And from familiar and less familiar grapes for that matter. The wines are from locations such as France, Italy, Moldova, and Portugal.  Merlots, Zinfandels, Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Grigios, and more are included in the offering according to Flying Blue, the company that assembled the boxes. The boxes state that wine drinkers will experience a “journey from coast to mountain and every corner in between.”  Note however that the names of the wines are not listed on the outside of the box, which adds to the fun.  It’s like a vinous scavenger hunt!

The wine advent calendar includes 24 half bottles (375ml each) of wine. Those of you proficient in the metric system will know this is 9L total.  So if you don’t like one, you’ll be almost done with it!  Alas the converse is true, if you really like it, well, tough luck!  While the $97.99 price point may seem a little steep, it’s actually not.  It is the equivalent of paying $98 for 12 full size bottles of wine. So it works out to just over $8 per standard size bottle.  Or just over $4 for each one of these cute half-bottles.

The advent calendar counts down from Dec. 1 to Christmas Day, offering one wine for each day leading up to the holiday.  But don’t wait until November to try to secure your wine advent calendar as past history suggests these will be under someone else’s holiday tree by then.

If you’re headed to Costco soon yourself, you can find our most recent reviews of Costco wines here in our Lucky 13 list.

And if your  shopping finds you at Trader Joe’s, you can find our Lucky 13 list of TJ’s wine here.

Cheers!