Like it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. I overwhelmingly fall under the “or not” category and dread the holiday season worse than Ebenezer Scrooge. But this year I discovered the most genius way to trick myself into being excited for Christmas: the whisky advent calendar from Secret Spirits.
Most people use advent calendars to encourage their excitement counting down to Christmas. But as the world’s biggest Grinch, I’ll be using the whisky advent calendar to survive the holiday season. Not only will I have whisky to celebrate every day, I’m counting down to my Grinch Getaway, when I escape Christmas by traveling.
Surviving the Holidays with the Whisky Advent Calendar from Secret Spirits
Wait, Did You Say Whisky Advent Calendar?!
Yes, yes I did. The age-old advent calendar is back, except instead of discovering a small gift every day, it’s filled with whisky! (Which is a much better in my opinion.)
Alcohol advent calendars have become insanely popular in recent years, featuring everything from wine and beer to gin and whisky. There are dozens of whisky calendars focusing on specific whisky regions or particular types of whisky. But only one whisky advent calendar ships to the United States: the whisky advent calendar from Secret Spirits.
[Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and I may receive a commission from them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting the companies that support Whiskied Wanderlust.]
Secret Spirits Whisky Advent Calendar
Secret Spirits is a Canadian-based company selling alcohol advent calendars. Owner Jonathan Bray travels to Scotland to hand pick 25 whiskies most people have never tasted (and never will taste again). He focuses on interesting and rare whiskies with a wide range of ages, prices, distilleries, and styles. Each whisky is packaged in 50 ml bottles, making them big enough to share.
Secret Spirits has two whisky advent calendars available (and a rum one, if you’re into that sort of thing): the regular edition and Collectors Edition. The 2018 regular edition is $400 — which is steep, I know, BUT it includes a lot of whisky. Specifically 25 one-of-a-kind whiskies, a funky tasting glass, lapel pin, and a tasting booklet all in an awesome Jumanji-esque box.
Each year Secret Spirits includes a different type of tasting glass. This year’s is a twisted Aurora glass large enough for ice or a cocktail. I’m not a huge fan of it for tasting the nuances of whisky, but it’s pretty.
What Whisky is in the Secret Spirits Whisky Advent Calendar?
Here’s a spoiler for some of the whisky in the advent calendar. (After all, we’re four days into it already!) The first bottle is a MacDuff 14 year Sherry finished whisky from Single Cask Nation, known for bottling exceptional, rare whisky. The Highland single malt is 57% ABV with notes of honey, nutty pastry and a little sherry.
The second bottle is a blend from Wemyss Malts called Wooden Chest. Wemyss (pronounced Weems) is an independent bottler and blender in Edinburgh. The Wemyss castle, in the family since the 1300s, grows barley for distilleries throughout Scotland. Bottled at 46% ABV, this whisky has notes of cream, toffee, ginger, spices and malt. (The Whiskey Vault has a great review of it here.)
And the third bottle is Lost Distillery Auchnagie Classic Selection. The Lost Distillery Company researches shuttered distilleries then recreates their whiskies. The Auchnagie Classic is a blend based on Auchnagie distillery, a Perthshire distillery closed in 1912. The palate has honey floral notes followed by pepper and apricot.
To find out the rest of the bottles, you’ll have to either get the calendar yourself or read my final review. Or check out Secret Spirits owner Jonathan Bray’s detailed blog posts on each dram. (Shameless promos all around!)
Worldwide Scotch Tasting
So far, Secret Spirits has lived up to its promise delivering whiskies I’ve never had before. I love to research whisky and discover new distilleries, and every day I’ve opened my Whisky Advent calendar with a new whisky to research. Not only am I tasting new whisky, I’m expanding my whisky knowledge. Cue my inner whisky nerd freaking out!
Not only that, one of the best things about being involved in whisky is the whisky community. Here in Chicago, I’ve met so many awesome friends and fellow nerds in the whisky community and this whisky advent calendar expands that to a global level. Thousands of people in the US, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and New Zealand are drinking the same whisky every day. How cool is that?
And as much as I hate the holidays, really they are about bringing people together — which I like. And what better way to do that than people all around the world drinking the exact same whisky? Joining thousands of people for a drink every night is a sure way to survive the holiday season… Or at the very least, stay warm in the Chicago winter!
•••
If you have a Secret Spirits Whisky Advent calendar, two of the whisky world’s favorite reviewers are doing daily tastings. The Scotch Test Dummies are posting daily reviews here while The Whisky Vault is posting here. Also, if you have a calendar, save a bit of each bottle. The calendar contains two bottles of the same distillery from different bottlers to show how different each cask can be. So save a sip to be able to compare it!
If you don’t have a Secret Spirits Whisky Advent calendar, grab one here. Psst they make great gifts to enjoy even beyond the Christmas season!
Update :: I review the entire calendar here, if you’re curious.
Disclaimer :: The Whisky Advent Calendar was generously provided by Secret Spirits. As always, all opinions are my own.
