The Twelve Days of CHEERSmas, feat. Nibbling Kittens
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On the first day of CHEERSmas, my true love gave to me, some Pinotage that tastes like coffee. And after getting pepped up with that Cafe Culture combination of coffee, chocolate and dark berry character, the gifts kept coming – 11 more bottles to make it feel like the 12 Days of Christmas.
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On the second day, the bitter cold required something that would even melt Scrooge's icy heart: mulled wine. A bottle of Rapunzel Gluewein that, once heated, meant a liter of tasty spiced warmth.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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Half of the gifts in the Christmas song involve birds – geese, swans, partridges and more. Thus, the third day brought a bottle of Mad Bird Malbec Ancellotta – we covered that fruity aromatic grape here – a wine to try with turkey and cranberry sauce.
Merry Christmas everybody!
The fourth day? A piece of the universe thanks to Domaine du Meteore les Leonides Faugeres. A meteor struck this plot of land 10,000 years ago and you can imagine every sip of that deep dark berry flavor has a whisper of the Great Beyond.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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Then it was vacation time. The fifth day delivered a tropical trip via the passion fruit-inspired beer by Appenzeller. Fresh, tart and zingy, this makes one imagine warmer climates.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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Then it was time to double down with Crafters beer – Sweet Dreams & Time Machines Tropical Session IPA. This time the passion fruit was married to mango and pineapple flavors.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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The seventh day paid tribute to Santa's elves with another Crafters beer – Tiny Gangsta. This very hoppy riff on an American Pale Ale kept our fruit theme going – think mangoes and oranges.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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So did the gift on the eighth day. Nasch Katzchen – that means nibbling kitten – offers three pleasant fruity yogurt-y flavors. (I shared these with a top Beijing bartender, who served it both over ice and in a cocktail, finding it less sweet than expected.) Try the cherry banana.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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We needed to honor Santa Claus, so what better pick from the CHEERS portfolio than the Reserve Chardonnay from San Telmo. Shift a letter, add a letter, and San Telmo becomes Santa Elmo. Enjoy it with some vanilla-flavored cookies – and leave some for the red-robed man himself.
Merry Christmas everybody!
On the tenth day, my true love was on a budget but knows I like bubbly, so it meant refreshing Cava Bonaval Brut from Spain.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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And on the eleventh, it was time to break that budget, with a bottle of Champagne. And to make it an extra white Christmas with a blanc de blancs – white from whites – by Bernard Remy. (Blanc de blancs means it only uses Chardonnay grapes.) Melon, apple and lemon all make appearances in this bubbly.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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Finally, the 12 Days of Christmas always features a partridge in a pear tree. Pear got switched for plum,, specifically plum wine – qing mei jiu – from Huasi, a drink that is a nice balance of sweet and tart. Try the 12 percent version – it's a bit more fuller-bodied, viscous and intensely flavored, and a nice way to wrap up the 12 days. But you'll have to find an own partridge for the plum tree. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Original by Jim Boyce, Grape Wall of China 葡萄围城
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