Click the pic to purchase the 2013 version from Master of Malt!

This is my dilemma each year when shopping for a Christmas gift for my parents. They are up there in years and certainly don’t need any more stuff. So what do I do? Well, to my great fortune, I received an email from Master of Malt and was directed to the Whiskey Advent Calendar which is a part of their Drinks by the Dram program.

This was a perfect gift for the following reasons:

• First, my Pappy (and to a certain extent, although she would never admit it, my Mom) is a big fan of the brown spirits.
• Second, it was something that they could enjoy over the course of the month rather than get a gift one day, then file it away for the rest of year.
• Lastly, I remember quite fondly how we waited in anticipation for my Great Aunt in Cleveland to send us our annual Advent calendar. We would take great care to open each door as it became our turn to extract a prize. How much better is it when the prize is a sample of whiskey, each of which is a surprise? Is it going to be Scotch? Rye? Bourbon? Is it going to be oak aged? Sherry finished? Single cask? Is it going to be aged 12 years? 18 years? 30 years? 50 years?

As promised, the calendar arrived on time. Prior to gifting it to my parents, I carefully opened a couple of doors and took a few photos (they are included at the end of this post). I found a Four Roses Single Barrel 2012 , Glenfarclas 105 20 yr old, Wild Turkey Straight Rye, Glenlivet Nadurra 16 yr old Batch 0512, Auchentoshan Three Wood, Glendronach 15 yr old Revival, and a Master of Malt 50 yr old Speyside (3rd Edition). Truth be told, I wanted to pull a couple of the bottles out, but I suspect my parents might have noticed.

As you can see, this is how I answered the age old question, “What do you get for someone who has everything?”. What do you plan on giving to that special someone that has everything? Let us know in the comments below!