Helen McGinn They say the best things in life are free. Not altogether true (wine! luxury skincare!) but you get the gist. Anyway, last week I posted a picture on Instagram of these brightly coloured gin-filled baubles. Designed to hang on your Christmas tree and filled with Pickering’s Gin, they are, quite simply, gin-ius. Sadly, they’re not free (a box of six costs £30 from Laithwaites) but I’m giving mine away because, to be honest, it’s unlikely they’ll last until December if I keep them. To enter, just leave a comment below this post on the blog. See below for T&Cs and in the meantime, more (free) wine recommendations. Chin chin!
T&Cs: The prize draw is open any UK resident over the age of 18. Closing date is 31st October 2017 at 11.59pm. A winner will be picked at random and notified by 3rd November 2017.
Current white in the fridge: Leaf Plucker Sauvignon Blanc
Price: £6.99 - Buy From Aldi
Ridiculously good value Sauvignon Blanc from the Western Cape, this has got all the bouncy citrus fruit you want (expect) from the super-fresh Sauvignon Blanc grape. But there’s another layer of flavour too, a kind of peachy hit. Some of the wine was aged in French oak barrels, giving it a bit more welly. Lovely, lovely stuff. And the leaf plucker in question? Sheep, apparently. They nibble the vines and the grapes get more sun. Win, win(e).
Current red in the rack: Taste the Difference Padthaway Merlot
Price: £7.00 - Buy From Sainsbury's
Love this rich, raisiny red from South Australia’s Padthaway region. It’s big (and at 14%, it needs food – or at least, a sofa) but not too burly. Rather, it’s got gorgeous chocolate-y flavours and soft, juicy tannins (the teeth-coating stuff that you get in red wine). Merlot sometimes gets a bit overlooked, especially as other red grapes tend to shout louder in the glass (Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, I’m looking at you) but if you’re in the mood for a non-shouty, great value warming red, this is made for you. Me too.
I’d love this set of gin baubles, and would share them with my social work colleagues who are totally amazing. 💫
Gin-gle all the way 😆
😍😍 Would LOVE these gorgeous baubles & can’t wait for Christmas to beGIN! 🎄🍸
Love ❤️ laughter 🤣 friendships 🤗… some of the best things in life are free!
Thank you for putting these baubles up for one of us to win. If I’m the lucky recipient, then they would go to my dad to enjoy as he is caring for my mum who has dementia. Dad could do with the occasional light libation to enjoy in rare quiet moments.
😍😍what’s not to love, soo pretty and full of gin!!
Love love love gin…. 2nd favourite tipple after wine!!!!
Gin baubles 😍😍 I’d even get a bigger Christmas tree for them!!
What a fab idea – love to be entered in the draw please. Love your blog – often serve your recommendations at my monthly MLC (Monday Lunch Club).
What’s not to love ! Who needs candy canes when you’ve got gin on the tree.
How beautiful! Just the perfect Christmas thank you for my fab team of hard working Invigilators! 🎅
And on the fifth day (every day!) of Christmas my true love gave to me…5 cold gins!!! 🎄🍸
These are lovely – so pretty, and gin!!!
Pick me! Pick me!
Love your blog! As a busy wine& gin loving mum of 7, it saves me lots of wasted time& money experimenting with wine otherwise & I sound very knowledgeable quoting your tasting notes 😂😂
Free gin baubles would be a fantastic way to start Christmas!
Ace product idea. Count me in for the draw! Mx
GINgle balls, GINgle balls, GINgle all the way. How fantastic would it be to drink these every day!
Wow- that is the best bauble idea ever! 😍
I would LOVE some boozy baubles. Can I have some some cheesy tinsel to snack on too?
Is it too early to think about Xmas? – no way!
Gin Baubles to help get me in the Xmas mood tra la la la la!
Best idea for a tree decoration ever! I think they’ll really suit my tree 😉 Nice one Helen!
After housing a small person last Christmas… I think this will be the perfect way to get festive this year now I can have a merry merry Christmas!! Thanks for the recommendation and fingers crossed!
Great to share with friends from my house to theirs xx
Happy International Gin and Tonic Day – the perfect excuse for a gin bauble or two
What fab gin idea, would be great at our Christmas house warming 🍸
Yes please Helen, I can’t guarantee mine would last until Christmas either!
Helen McGinn giving away Gin! Yes please, pick me, pick me!!!!
I’d love these! Tied to buy some last year but they were out of stock everywhere!
Count me G-in ! hmmmm
I’d love to win these although the tree might look a little bare come Christmas Day!
Gin gin!
I LIVE by your recommendations Helen. Perhaps a little too much, but I don’t buy wine – or gin baubles – without your say so.
ooooh wouldn’t say no to a gin,lush 😉
I just love this idea! And I know a lot of friends that I can share them with!!
Should I be the lucky one I’d love to hang them in a custom-made (by me) Christmas tree for all the lovely folk who work at my son’s local Day Centre whose commitment is to continue raising miles of smiles with disabled young adults with profound multiple learning difficulties. I am a huge gin fan but an even bigger fan of the folk who have a special talent of caring and giving our youngsters plenty of joy and that’s priceless to us mums!
Please let me delight my friends with a gin bauble each from the Christmas fairy so we can get the Christmas spirit going early!
Ooh yes please, have just the person to share them with!
I wish me a merry gin-mas. I wish me a merry gin-mas. I wish me a merry gin-mas, and a tipsy new year!
Gin-ness gracious me,
I’d love these to grace my tree,
There’d be much less stress this Christmas,
They’d make it happy as can be!
Nearly fainted at the mere mention of Christmas. Then saw the possibility of gin on the horizon and all was well. Quite a tonic, in fact.
Joyce! You’ve won! Email me (knackeredmother @ gmail dot com) and I’ll get them in the post to you. Well done! X
Would love to win the gin bauble it would make my Christmas!!
Let the festivities beGIN!
Never too early for gin!
Count me in for the baubles!
Let the festive season beGIN
Oh they are beautiful! What a Christmas treat.
Would love some Gin baubles to adorn my 🎄 this year – cheers gin, gin.
Would love to win this, looks amazing! Gin is the only way to stay sane in December chaos 🙈
Excellent give away. In the interest of child safety I would obviously have to drink the gin and replace with water pre Christmas. #health&safetyfirst #takingoneforthekids
I’ll say “gin gin” ( chin chin! ) as bound to be rather slurry after drinking them all…..
I didn’t think I liked gin very much but have been practising very hard over the summer months with the Cpopperhouse you recommended and I am happy to say I am now a convert! Would love to try these baubles!
Fabulous! Not sure they would last til Xmas in my house either!
A bottle of premium Pink Gin went to the winner of ‘Gin Alley’ Coin-toss, for the Wear-it-Pink campaign at work yesterday. There were a lot of disappointed colleagues around!
The baubles would bring a smile to the runner-up.
[It wasn’t me – Not winning didn’t stop me or lovely wife having a drink!]
Gin? Christmas tree baubles? Seriously, could there BE a better combination?!
What a great idea! Though I think that they would also not last until the end of year at my place. Love your recommendations!
I ASKED GOD FOR A CHIN, SO HE GAVE ME A DOUBLE, NEVER LOOKED BACK
GinGin
Excellent idea and so so beautiful!
Gin Christmas! What a fab idea.