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ORIGINAL: RockinCabs

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ORIGINAL: Wine Gopher

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ORIGINAL: CranBurgundy

Wine Gopher needs to come over here!

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ORIGINAL: Wine Gopher

Santa left a bottle of the nectar of Vermont (Maple Syrup) and the nectar of the Gods (2013 Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie). I'm a total sucker for Cote Rotie so this is very exciting.

Thanks. That was a pretty bad user error. I guess I shouldn't trying posting and sleuthing with a 3 year old running around screaming.

RockinCabs, are you my SS?

Correct! When choosing your gift I was contemplating if giving a second bottle of something already in your cellar was a good idea. Then CranBurgundy chimed in noting that another bottle of a particularly great wine would be welcomed.

Check in on the Jamet when you feel the time is right, and you now have a second bullet to fire when it is mature.

Merry Christmas!

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ORIGINAL: dontime

And Santa took some time to make my gift meaningful.

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ORIGINAL: mgriffith

I am going to go ahead and get egg on my face for being wrong and get it over with.

Backed on shipping location, known travel plans, and a couple of other factors I will ask, Jack667 - are you my Santa?

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ORIGINAL: mwest

Thank you Santa for a very lovely and generous gift of:

2012 Vieux Chateau Certan

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ORIGINAL: Jack667

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ORIGINAL: mgriffith

I am going to go ahead and get egg on my face for being wrong and get it over with.

Backed on shipping location, known travel plans, and a couple of other factors I will ask, Jack667 - are you my Santa?

Hey Malcolm! I'm sorry to say that I am not your Secret Santa. Keep guessing! :)

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ORIGINAL: Jack667

Hey! Glad to be taking a nice break today and enjoying reveal day, even if it's a bit late for me.

I was in NC all week, and had planned to fly back to ATL at 8am yesterday. My flight was canceled Thursday evening and I was re-booked on a 1230pm flight, just a few hours later than planned, still for Friday / yesterday. I got to the airport at about 10am and I was there for about 11 hours, getting delayed, on/off the plane 3 times, until they finally had to give up and I had to scramble for another re-book and a hotel for the night. I got home around 11am today and totally forgot about reveal day, after that epic ordeal.

Fast fwd to dinner time. TW is out getting her hair done (no rain, nor sleet, nor snow will interfere with that), so I cooked a dad's dinner for my 3 young boys. Basically 4 strip steaks on the grill. No starch, no veg. Who need that, plus not much laying around the house. Thinking about a wine to pair, I was in the cellar and grabbed a 2013 CT / Smig special, and was about to walk out when I remembered about reveal day!

I made a pact with myself that I'd drink the gift wine immediately, as long as it wasn't a case of infanticide. I never do this, but I really wanted to take that approach this year. Thankfully, I received a great wine, not just on it's own, but ready enough to drink and a good match for the steak.

I was generously gifted a bottle of Reynvaan - The Unnamed! I popped-n-poured it right away and it's really great!! Thanks for my Secret Santa for that great thought. I've been working on getting outside of Napa for bigger domestic wines and this is perfect.

My wife is still out, but she'll get a chuckle out of the name of this wine - the Unnamed. My middle son had a crush on a girl at school last year - while he was in 6th grade. He wouldn't tell us who she was, and only would refer to her in our presence as 'The unnamed'. I wish he was old enough to try some (maybe he will - he's napping now after a 3-hour snow football game in a neighbors yard), but I'll certainly have my wife enjoy some. She doesn't drink much red wine at all, but she enjoys some good stuff once in a while and I know she'll love this.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And - to add to the extreme length of this post, I'm also going to hazard my first guess...
Strangely (?), the box came with some paper clips packed inside. hmmm... That's certainly odd... Anyway - the shipping info says it comes from Minneapolis and now that I know the wine and do some additional checking... There's so much Reynvaan in this Minneapolis resident's cellar that
I have to guess if my Secret Santa is Wine Gopher

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ORIGINAL: Hollowine

Hey Cranburgundy,

Just opened last years '98 Jadot at a Christmas party with some CT buddies and Santa. Lovely! Thanks so much!

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ORIGINAL: Wine Gopher

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ORIGINAL: Jack667

Hey! Glad to be taking a nice break today and enjoying reveal day, even if it's a bit late for me.

I was in NC all week, and had planned to fly back to ATL at 8am yesterday. My flight was canceled Thursday evening and I was re-booked on a 1230pm flight, just a few hours later than planned, still for Friday / yesterday. I got to the airport at about 10am and I was there for about 11 hours, getting delayed, on/off the plane 3 times, until they finally had to give up and I had to scramble for another re-book and a hotel for the night. I got home around 11am today and totally forgot about reveal day, after that epic ordeal.

Fast fwd to dinner time. TW is out getting her hair done (no rain, nor sleet, nor snow will interfere with that), so I cooked a dad's dinner for my 3 young boys. Basically 4 strip steaks on the grill. No starch, no veg. Who need that, plus not much laying around the house. Thinking about a wine to pair, I was in the cellar and grabbed a 2013 CT / Smig special, and was about to walk out when I remembered about reveal day!

I made a pact with myself that I'd drink the gift wine immediately, as long as it wasn't a case of infanticide. I never do this, but I really wanted to take that approach this year. Thankfully, I received a great wine, not just on it's own, but ready enough to drink and a good match for the steak.

I was generously gifted a bottle of Reynvaan - The Unnamed! I popped-n-poured it right away and it's really great!! Thanks for my Secret Santa for that great thought. I've been working on getting outside of Napa for bigger domestic wines and this is perfect.

My wife is still out, but she'll get a chuckle out of the name of this wine - the Unnamed. My middle son had a crush on a girl at school last year - while he was in 6th grade. He wouldn't tell us who she was, and only would refer to her in our presence as 'The unnamed'. I wish he was old enough to try some (maybe he will - he's napping now after a 3-hour snow football game in a neighbors yard), but I'll certainly have my wife enjoy some. She doesn't drink much red wine at all, but she enjoys some good stuff once in a while and I know she'll love this.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And - to add to the extreme length of this post, I'm also going to hazard my first guess...
Strangely (?), the box came with some paper clips packed inside. hmmm... That's certainly odd... Anyway - the shipping info says it comes from Minneapolis and now that I know the wine and do some additional checking... There's so much Reynvaan in this Minneapolis resident's cellar that
I have to guess if my Secret Santa is Wine Gopher

Nailed it . I saw that you liked Syrah and had dabbled with WW but I thought you maybe you needed more of a gateway to the Rocks.

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ORIGINAL: CranBurgundy
I might be barking up the wrong tree with my conspiracy theory, but since it isn't one of the Fantastic 4 I have to figure it's another regular who would be most likely to be in on the game. Of the Good Santas, I would think mclancy10006, mc2 wines, and crispino are the probables.

Given that, my second guess is crispino - Chris, are you my CT SS?

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ORIGINAL: dontime

Gonna bite again. Jack667 - are you my SS?

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ORIGINAL: crispino

Look at what I got!



I am psyched to have this! Thanks so much to my Santa! To be honest, I'm still pretty much a newbie at wine appreciation, but one trend I've certainly noticed is that I seem to be a sucker for all things Tuscan, so this is going to be great. Plus the tasting notes seem to indicate that this will be a perfect wine to enjoy with a big home-cooked dinner, which is my usual tradition for enjoying my SS wine. With all my comings and goings yesterday it didn't happen, but I'm hoping to bust this out next weekend. Really looking forward to it! Thanks again! This is much appreciated.

Now as to who my Santa is...

There was no note or anything in the box, but the return address was from one Kris Kringle, BUT located not at the North Pole but in Milton, GA.

I see that one Jack667 seems to have recently changed his address to the North Pole - a switcheroo, perhaps? And if memory serves (and it may not) I believe his usual location is in fact the same Milton, GA. So I'm going to take a swing and guess him.

Jack - are you my Santa? CONFESS.

- Chris

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ORIGINAL: RockinCabs

My Santa went to good lengths to their identity, but the signature line of Idioteque Chorusix was the clue that i needed.

Idioteque I recognized as an Radiohead song from my College year after thinking it over for a few moments. I was a fan of The Bends, but OK Computer was a signature album for me in high school. However Kid A was a relative disappointment for me, and by then other groups had started dominating my attention. Long story short I had to look up song via Youtube.

The chorus of this song? "Ice Age Coming, Ice Age Coming, Let me hear both sides"

IzeAgeComing, I presume you are my Secret Santa?

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ORIGINAL: ern1

Okay, damn yesterday wore me out.
Sooooo....when giving Crispino my registration information I always use my parents address in case the wine comes via UPS as they are retired and 99 out of 100 times are home when UPS delivers. My personal "off site" if you will 😀. So imagine their surprise on The evening of Nov 19th when Leah Smith showed up on their front porch carrying a signed bottle of Myriad Cab to deliver. Now, my parents are in their 70s and 80s respectively so I was surprised they even opened their door after 6. But hey even they threw personal security out the window when they saw the stranger carrying a bottle of wine. How dangerous could a wine toter be anyways? Well after a brief discussion they ironed things out and Leah was on her way.
Well once again, being the elderly folk they are, my parents have not quite grasped the whole SS, online, giving/getting gifts for complete strangers all over the country thing so Mom calls me all frantic telling me if a complete stranger calls I should answer. As she said, "somebody paid to have this lady flown in to hand deliver your wine". I'm in the middle of baking one chicken and smoking another and have no idea what the hell Mom is yammering on about. I figured this was it,Mom had finally lost it. Well just then call waiting beeps in and the caller ID says Leah Smith. Of course I answer and she introduces herself as the wife of winemaker Mike Smith and she is en route with a gift. Well needless to say she arrived a few minutes later with our gift. We had a brief conversation. Our three year old informed Leah that Santa lives at the North Pole and then Leah was on her way. She and her daughter were in town for an event at the Omaha Wine Company.....so no my SS did not pay round trip airfare for Leah to deliver the wine 😂 God bless my parents!
I was caught so off guard I didn't even think to snap a picture with Leah.
I have never had a Mike Smith wine but am certainly aware of his many different labels and am excited to try it!
I have obviously known what my wine is for several weeks but did not start sleuthing till late last night, I play by the rules ya know. Leah admitted my SS was a client of theirs and one held in high regard. So I'm looking for somebody with a serious stash of Mike's wines. Mr Dontime's cellar is private.....hmmmmm. I do notice though, Don,that you speak highly and often of Mike Smith and his wines and also notice you are a volume purchaser!


So Dontime might you be my SS?

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ORIGINAL: Franklin 10

So here’s my guess: MC2, are you my 2017 Secret Santa?