10 boozy advent calendars and festive drinks for a very merry Christmas

Looking to impress your guests at Christmas, or fancy treating yourself to a boozy advent calendar packed with tasty tipples? We have you covered with 10 festive drinks and gifts to get you in the holiday spirit.

Members’ club 67 Pall Mall has now launched its own series of fine wine Advent calendars. The three options are: the 67 Pall Mall Sommelier Calendar, the Burgundy Advent Calendar by Jasper Morris MW and the Bordeaux Advent Calendar by Jane Anson.

Behind each door is a fine wine bottled by 67 Pall Mall to exacting standards, housed within a lovingly rendered facade that depicts 67 Pall Mall’s flagship club in London.

Each advent calendar comes with a “shortlist of hand-picked accessories favoured by the wine lover”, according to a description, and are available to purchase here.

Maison Lanson has released its latest Champagne offerings, Noble Champagne Brut 2004 and Noble Champagne Blanc De Blancs 2004, available to purchase just in time for Christmas.

Aged in cellar in the heart of Reims for almost two decades, both expressions of Noble Champagne are set to be some of the oldest prestige vintages currently available on the market. What better way to impress your guests?

The 12 day Advent Cocktail Box, created by NIO Cocktails, has been designed for sharing and is intended for people looking for a way to celebrate the festive season with delicious drinks instead of chocolates each time they open their advent calendar window.

The boxed set features 24 must-have cocktails, each accompanied by a dried garnish, which can be pulled out two at a time during the festive month of December and has been positioned as the perfect way to toast the colder months in the lead up to Christmas.

The cocktails contained within each NIO Advent Cocktail Box include: a Negroni, a Manhattan, a Margarita, a Mai Tai, a Cosmopolitan, a Daiquiri, an Old Fashioned, a Gin Sour, a Brown Gold, an Espresso Martini, a Sidecar and a White Lady. A line-up that covers off most classic cocktail recipes as well as potnetially introducing recipients to one or two with which they are less familiar.

The Advent Cocktail Box retails at £115 and can be pre-ordered via the NIO Cocktails web shop for delivery between 14-30 November 2022 in time for the run-up to Christmas.

Stirling Distillery, situated in the shadow of Stirling Castle, has launched its seasonal Winter Gin.

At 46% APV, the 2022 batch of Winter Gin is better than ever. The distillery has tweaked the flavour to include enhanced cinnamon notes and increased the maceration time of the apples picked from distillery owners’ June and Cameron McCann’s family apple tree. These changes have given this year’s batch more depth and warming notes.

 

But if you want slightly different for your Christmas quaffing, then Ocado has got you covered with a Fever-Tree gin and tonic advent calendar.

According to the product description, the Fever-Tree gin and tonic advent calendar features 12 miniature gins including The Botanist Islay Dry Gin, Warner’s Raspberry Gin, Silent Pool Intricately Realised Gin, Audemus Spirits Pink Pepper Gin, Haymans of London Sloe Gin, Chase Pink Grapefruit & Pomelo Gin, Tanqueray, Edinburgh Gin Christmas Gin, Hendrick’s Gin, Ramsbury, Slingsby Rhubarb Gin, Sipsmith London.

With the festive months soon upon us, Silent Pool Gin is looking to help you impress friends and family this Christmas.

The distillery is offering its luxury handcrafted gin made from 24 botanicals with the aim of capturing the essence of the Surrey Hills. A contemporary London Dry gin with floral top notes, this tipple is perfectly served in a G&T with Indian tonic, garnished with an orange slice.

Silent Pool Gin Luxury Gift Tin is available for RRP £40 from Silent Pool Distillers.

Aldi has unveiled its wine advent calendar for 2022, which is always worth celebrating.

This year’s Aldi wine advent calendar priced at £59.99, which keen-eyed Aldi aficionados will know is £10 more than last year’s prices – symptomatic of rising costs across the alc bev sector.

The 24 miniature (up to 20cl) bottles span white, red and rosé expressions, and the advent calendar will be available to purchase from Aldi from 30 October, a much more sensible time of the year to be discussing Christmas.

Virgin Wines has also launched a range of wine-based advent calendars to see you through the murky dark of December.

Featuring an appealing wreath-adorned front door design, the wine-based advent calendars come in a range of three options: all-red, all-white, or a mixed calendar – all retailing at £89.99.

The calendars are chock-full with 24 miniature, 18.7cl bottles of wine, with the considerable added bonus of a full-size bottle behind the 25th door.

Scottish gin brand Caorunn, produced by Scottish spirits company Inver House Distillers, has reintroduced its Christmas cracker gin gift packs, each containing individually boxed crackers.

Inside the crackers, consumers will find a miniature bottle of either Caorunn London Dry Gin, or the brand’s Scottish Raspberry flavoured version.

According to the company, the gins make “an ideal stocking filler, table setting or simply just a gift from you, to you”.

Caorunn gin crackers come in packs of four, for £20, reduced from £25 exclusively from the Caorunn webshop with delivery commencing 29 November.

For any Christmas-lovers across the pond, Ska Brewing’s Peppermint Bark Stout was brewed with actual peppermint bark (white chocolate, dark chocolate, and candy canes) made in Durango by the Animas Chocolate Company. It’s sweet, chocolate-forward, minty, and creamy— everything you want in a holiday ale.

Peppermint Bark Stout marks the beginning of Ska’s foray into more sustainable packaging, too.

Peppermint Bark Stout will be available exclusively in Colorado in extremely limited quantities while supplies last. Find it on tap at Ska Brewing, and in canned, 12 oz. 4-packs that include a QR code linked to a playlist of Thibodeau’s favorite holiday jingles. This beer will be the first from Ska to be packaged with paperboard rings, supporting the brewery’s long-term effort to eliminate all plastic. Come spring of 2023, all of Ska’s beers will be packaged with these can holders.

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