Wines for Halloween 2023! (Vine to Bar Chocolate, Wines to Pair with Halloween Party foods, Spooky wine labels)

Show Notes

Episode 94: Wines for Halloween 2023!  00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

Ok, a quick orientation for those of you who may be new to the podcast - in each episode we learn about, taste and give our honestly honest review of three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $20 each -  and should be easy for you to find. And our podcast is made for people who want to learn more about wine, find new wines to enjoy, and just want someone to talk about wine in a fun way that regular people can understand. So, if that sounds like you, you are in the right place! And we are proud to say that we are recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining

Carmela, we are here again to what is probably my most favorite-ist times of the year: Halloween! We talked about this last year when we did a Halloween episode, but to me, Halloween was always just so fun and exciting, but I don’t think it was as high up on your list, was it?

I think I liked it so much because, well, for one, you got free candy, but I also think it’s just sort of fun to get scared. There is the adventure of something crazy happening, that adrenaline rush that shit might go sideways makes it pretty enticing to me. I think it’s the same reason why people like scary movies and haunted houses. It's a chance to sort of face your fears, but do it in a way that we ultimately know, or should know, is safe. 

But what, you may ask, does this have to do with wine? The honest answer is that I am not really sure. 

No, I am kidding. The link here is that people love Halloween, and during Halloween lots of people love to get together and have fun, and so we thought why not talk about some wines that may be fun to bring over to parties or share with friends that are festive and appropriate for Halloween? Right?!? 

Now, according to a website that sounds very authoritative - pumpkin patches and more .com - people are getting back into Halloween in a big way. After several years of COVID, 10 million more Americans, or 190 million Americans, participated in Halloween festivities 2022, and this year is expected to be no different. And, if the trends hold, more than 1/3rd of people will attend or throw some sort of Halloween party or festival. 

So, that sounds like a great opportunity to think about wines to serve at a party! Even if there are kids there. Maybe especially if there are kids there! 

However, because the economy is a little harder for some people right now, this same website is saying that people are likely to spend a little less this year, so people will be looking for affordable or reasonably priced things, like wine, to serve at those parties. And so this is the perfect podcast for that because we are talking about reasonably priced yet spooky wines.

On a side note, we are also going to taste some chocolate today! And not just any chocolate, but chocolate made with wine! Several weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have been contacted by a company called Vine to Bar and they sent us some samples of their chocolate. Now, we told them that just because they sent us the chocolate does not mean we’ll talk about it in a nice way - we tell all people that reach out to us that we take our reviews very seriously and we won’t give a good rating to a product unless we really like it, which, by the way, is why we do interviews with winemakers but do not drink their wines because we don’t think it is ethical to do if our review is not going to be honest. But, this Vine to Bar chocolate we think is good. And what connects it to wine is that it is made with something called Chardonnay Marc - which consists of grape skins, seeds, and stems, and is a by-product of grape juice production for Chardonnay wine making. Evidently, the marc is a rich source of health-promoting molecules, and is growing in popularity as a flavorful healthy food ingredient.

So, we are eating chocolate, and in addition to liking it, we may actually be eating something sweet that is good for us. Who knew! If you want to know more about Vine to Bar we have links in our show notes if you go to our website and click on this episode and then scroll down to the show notes. 

But back to wine itself - because we have three different Halloween friendly wines - and we’ll talk about what makes them Halloween friendly in a bit - and we are going to taste and review these wines to see if they are worth bringing to your Great Pumpkin party . . .

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

First, we want to thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and if you have not had the chance to do so yet, now would be the perfect time to subscribe to our podcast  - it is a free way to support us, otherwise we will haunt your dreams!  - and a huge thank you to all of you who have subscribed already! 

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You can also follow us and see pictures of the wines we are tasting and trying today on Instagram  at thewinepairpodcast, you can also follow us on Threads and you can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and get news and food and wine pairing ideas and recipes and more! 

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should tell about The Wine Pair Podcast. This week, we want you to tell anyone who brings up the topic of Halloween. That should cover a lot of folks. And when they talk about Halloween, we want you to mention The Wine Pair Podcast and send them this episode!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/27/why-we-like-scary-things/ 
• https://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/halloweenfacts.php#:~:text=2022%20was%20a%20big%20rebound,Americans%20celebrated%20Halloween%20in%202015. 
• https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.1c04195#:~:text=Chardonnay%20marc%2C%20consisting%20of%20grape,a%20flavorful%20healthy%20food%20ingredient. 
• https://www.vinetobar.com/

Topic: Choosing Wines for Your Halloween Party 10:40

Now, last year, we covered a lot of stuff in our Halloween episode - maybe too much stuff - but we don’t want to repeat ourselves so you can go back to that episode to hear us talk about pairing wine with Halloween candy, and what the most popular Halloween candies in the US are, and pairing scary movies and wines. And, in an interesting coinkadink, the episode last year was episode 49, and this year we are on episode 94. Woah. Spooky.

Now, when you think of a great Halloween party, Carmela, what are some things that you think are crucial?

For me, here are some fun elements you can have to make a Halloween party great, whether you are doing it for kids or adults:

• Decorations - this sounds dumb, but you need lots of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns and lights and spiders and cobwebs and things like that. I kind of think that lights and lighting may be the most important thing
• Pumpkin Carving - this may be a little controversial if you have little kids, but I think a really fun thing to do at a Halloween party is to have a pumpkin carving contest with prizes.
• Candy - again, probably obvious, but I would want to have lots of Halloween candy and treats around and this would include cookies and cupcakes and stuff. 
• Apple bobbing or Donuts on a string - I think a game where people try and grab things with their mouths is a pretty fun and funny option. If bobbing for apples is too gross, then I like the idea of having donuts hung from the ceiling on strings and seeing who can eat it the fastest with no hands and not let it drop on the floor. 
• Halloween music - I think here you can go with either spooky sounds or songs that are from scary movies. 

Now, of course you need food and drinks other than candy and apples or donuts, and, I am telling you, there are like 8 million articles online that talk about Halloween party foods. Actually, I did find one article that claimed there were 1,978 articles on Halloween wine itself. 

But when I think about a Halloween party, I think about more snacky kinds of foods and foods that you can eat with your hands - things like chips and dip, seven layer dip and tortilla chips, charcuterie, veggies and dip, breadsticks, beef or pulled pork sliders, things like that. 

How about you?

So, obviously there are tons of different kinds of drinks and punches you can serve that are fun, but this is a wine podcast, so we are going to talk about wine. As a general rule of thumb, we think a good mix of red and white wines, including some that are richer and bolder along with some that are lighter and lower alcohol is a good idea. 

Because the foods that will probably be served are going to be salty, cheesy, creamy, and fatty, I would probably stick with wines that have some body and a good balance of tannin and acid. The body will help them to stand up to that style of food, and the acid will help the wines cut through. 

We’ll talk about the wines we chose for this episode in a second, but to help make those choices a little easier, I am thinking of lightly oaked Chardonnays, a good spicy fall white like a dry Riesling - and we just did an episode on dry Rieslings from the Finger Lakes in New York, a red wine you can serve a little chilled like a Pinot Noir or a Gamay aka beaujolais or even a Cabernet Franc (not a Cabernet Sauvignon), a California Zinfandel from the Paso Robles region if you can, and Syrah or Merlot focused blends as wines that will do well with these foods. 

I would think about choosing a wine you can slightly chill because those are going to go down easy, be crowd pleasers, and will go well with snacky foods. I also think a Syrah or Merlot focused blend is a good idea because those can be really approachable and tend to be good for all sorts of different palates. Zinfandels can also be great choices because they can have some spice on them, but are usually well balanced between acid and tannin. 

But, if you really want to be festive, there is more than just taste you have to think about, right Carmela?

So, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we chose for the episode today. Whaddya say?

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.marthastewart.com/269995/doughnuts-on-a-string#:~:text=With%20kids%20standing%20under%20the,it%20fall%20off%20the%20ribbon. 
• https://www.thebash.com/articles/halloween-party-checklist
• https://www.kateaspen.com/blogs/kate-aspen-blog/6-spooky-halloween-party-essentials
• https://www.food.com/ideas/halloween-party-food-recipes-6177#c-13889 
• https://californiawineryadvisor.com/halloween-wine-party/ 

Halloween Themed Wines We Chose for This Episode 18:05

As usual, all of the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $20, and all of them should be relatively easy to find because I bought them all on wine.com. That being said, there are lots of options that will fall into our parameters for a great Halloween party wine, and that is, in addition to fitting the food, they have an appropriate name or label - or hopefully both.

We hope and expect these wines will be good, but I will be very clear that the wines we chose for this episode are very much about the labels and names. One of the wines did get a 92 rating from Wine Enthusiast, so fingers crossed that we have at least one winner.

And, Carmela, I have a confession to make - all of the wines we are tasting and reviewing today are reds. Just a bias on my part, but I kind of feel like a red wine is a bit more festive and appropriate for Halloween - you know, blood red!

The first wine we are going to drink today is one that I just had to get because the name and the label are so outrageous - and it is called Prayers of Sinners Red Blend. I don’t have a ton of information on this wine, but it is from the great state of Washington, and it is a Syrah and Merlot blend. Because it is a blend of these two grapes, it is not quite a GSM and not quite a Bordeaux blend - in fact, the French would rarely blend these two grapes, in part because the regions in which these grapes grow in France are distinct from each other. 

Instead, the Syrah / Merlot blend is very much a new world blend, one that is tailor made for the warmer weather areas in places like California and Australia where both of these grapes may be grown together. 

But, honestly, that was about all I could find out about this wine, other than it was produced by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

The next wine we are going to try today is called Omen Origins Zinfandel and it comes from the Sierra Foothills of California. And, it is again one that I almost solely chose for its label which kind of reminded me of a ouija board, but has a spooky name and a creepy label with some weird black birds on it. 

While this wine is called a Zinfandel, it also contains 7% Petite Sirah, which is sometimes added to deepen the color of a wine and also adding some tannin and body. 

Again, not a ton I could find out about these wines, and I will say that some websites had some wildly different information on things like the amount of alcohol or even the blend of the grapes, which is weird. Overall, the winery says these wines are supposed to be sugar-free and Vegan-friendly. 

The last wine we are tasting today is called Devil's Corner Pinot Noir and it comes from Tasmania in Australia. Tasmania is said to be a cooler climate wine growing area. Tasmania is a large island to the south of Melbourne, Australia, and it has much cooler climate than Australia itself, maybe a bit closer to New Zealand’s climate. 

To give a little information about the naming of the wine, here is a description from the winery: Devil's Corner, on Tasmania's East Coast, is one of the wildest and most relentless environments on Earth. People say you are a product of your environment and Devil's Corner believes the harshest conditions yield the greatest results. The name comes from intrepid sailors who, while navigating Tasmania's Tamar River, discovered a treacherous bend and named it Devil's Corner. Beyond the tumultuous reach, they found an amazing sanctuary where still waters rewarded their impressive navigational efforts. Today it is home to some of the most stunning vineyards in Tasmania.

Again, I couldn't find out a ton about this wine, but it does look like it is fermented in stainless steel, so I am expecting this to be a pretty light Pinot Noir, one that you should be able to drink immediately and serve a bit chilled as we mentioned.

So, we have 3 different wines, all with spooky labels, and all should fit in nicely for a Halloween party or celebration based on what we think you might want to have, at least for those who like red wine in your crowd. 

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-1893-merlot-syrah#:~:text=Sometimes%20Syrah's%20peppery%20side%20comes,plum%2C%20currants%20and%20dark%20cherries.
• https://www.wine.com/product/prayers-of-sinners-red-blend-2019/877940
• https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/grapes-for-wine-making-flavor-characteristics-explained/petite-sirah-wine-grape-flavor-character-history/
• https://boulderwine.com/product/omen-zinfandel-sierra-foothills-2019/
• https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_902552/devil-s-corner-pinot-noir 
• https://obcwines.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Devils-Corner_2019_PinotNoir-3.pdf 

Halloween Party Wine Pairing Tasting and Reviews 24:28

Wine: Prayers of Sinners Red Blend (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region: Washington
Year: 2019
Price: $11.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Syrah, Merlot

What we tasted and smelled in this Prayers of Sinners Red Blend:

• On the nose: smells hot, wood, leather, dark plum, cherry juice, smells thick, smoke, fresh cut wood
• In the mouth: Hot (tastes like a lot alcohol), a lot of tannin, not a ton fruit, plum, rich, has body, tastes very extracted, grape skin, an American style bold wine, black pepper, cayenne, spicy

Food to pair with this Prayers of Sinners Red Blend: Steak, roast, fall food wine, good with cheesy and spicy foods, sliders, meat lovers pizza
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Prayers of Sinners Red Blend Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 5/10
• Carmela: 5/10

Great choice for a Halloween party!


Wine: Omen Origins Zinfandel (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region: California, Sierra Foothills
Year: 2019
Price: $17.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: 93% Zinfandel, 7% Petite Sirah
Professional Rating: WE 92

What we tasted and smelled in this Omen Origins Zinfandel:

• On the nose: Raspberry, berry bramble, tart cherry, tart red berry, spice, paprika, pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, wood
• In the mouth: Juicy, smooth, tannin, pepper, smoke, tart red raspberries, fresh tart red berries, vanilla, honey, fruit forward

Food to pair with this Omen Origins Zinfandel: Good with dark chocolate, red meat, great pizza wine, lasagna, parmigiana, tomato sauce, great with a meat and cheese board

Omen Origins Zinfandel Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 7/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Great choice for a Halloween party!


Wine: Devil's Corner Pinot Noir (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region: Australia, Tasmania
Year: 2021
Price: $19.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Pinot Noir

What we tasted and smelled in this Devil's Corner Pinot Noir:

• On the nose: When swirled mushroom and earth and grass and clay, cherry liquor, the middle of a cherry cordial, alcohol based flowery perfume
• In the mouth: Mushroom, tomato, vegetable, tart cherry candy, sour cherry ball, cherry Jelly Belly, fruity or flowery soap, pomegranate, flavors are almost dimmed

Food to pair with this Devil's Corner Pinot Noir: Good with garlicky foods, aglio oglio, garlic bread, cheesy garlic bread, white garlic pizza, lemon chicken, chicken piccata, chicken marsala


Devil's Corner Pinot Noir Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 6/10

Great choice for a Halloween party!

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Omen Origins Zinfandel
• Joe: Omen Origins Zinfandel

Taste profiles expected from Syrah Merlot blend, Zinfandel, and Pinot Noir   46:13

• General 
  • Not applicable!
• Prayers of Sinners Red Blend
  • Winery: This broody red wine is deeply layered with blackberry, dark fruit, violet and cocoa.
• Omen Origins Zinfandel
  • WE: This medium-bodied, ultra smooth wine is rich and relaxed, offering super ripe cherries and roasted plums along with tilled earth, cedar and sage accents that lend compelling complexity.
  • Boulder Wine.com: Full-flavored with no hard edges, Omen Zinfandel is lush and fruit driven.  Enjoy a generous mix of jammy berry fruits accented by baking spices and toasted oak.
• Devil's Corner Pinot Noir
  • Winery: A strongly perfumed style redolent of spicy black cherry, dark fruits and hints of raspberries. The wine displays a juicy, sweet-fruit middle palate with soft, ripe tannins and fresh acidity.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 47:47

Ok, so, Carmela, it is just about time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast service - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can, leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com and you can join our email newsletter there, too, or you can just email us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and tell us about a wine you are curious about, or curious what we think of it. And, follow us on Instagram and Threads so you can see pictures of all of these wines we are tasting and reviewing. 

And, next time you listen to an episode, drink along with us and see if you are tasting and experiencing the same things we are - it’s like a date night! And if you do that, we’d love to hear what you think!

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.