5 Ways to Drink Devilishly This Halloween

wine for halloween

When there’s a chill in the air and a jack-o'-lantern on the porch, it’s time for wine that's spooky in every place but inside the glass. Here are five wine options that will have you laughing like Vincent Price:

1. Wine for Candy:

A sweet-seeming red like an oaky Shiraz, Zinfandel or Cabernet will pair nicely with mini-Snickers or a fist-full of Jujubes.

2. Hard Cider:

If your Halloween will include bobbing for apples or caramel apples, ask your local wine merchant for their best hard apple cider. Recently fashionable among wine hipsters, hard cider has a delicious, farm-fresh taste joined by a light sparkle and a low alcohol content.

3. Madeira:

This caramel-tinged wine from the Portuguese island of the same name may be the ultimate spooky sip. So haunting is its taste and stencil-letter bottle that I recently included it in this supernatural setting.

4. Wine With Scary Names:
- Alexander Valley “Sin Zin” (California)
- Charles Smith Merlot “The Velvet Devil” (Washington state)
- Chronic Cellars Zinfandel “Dead Nuts” (California)
- Giant Wine Company “Ghost of 413” Red (Washington state)
- Leitz Riesling “Dragonstone” (Germany)
- Mt. Monster Shiraz (Australia)
- Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon “Sexy Beast” (Australia)
5. Sangria:

If you want to say it with color instead of the label, whip up a nice blood-red batch of sangria, the wine punch with chopped fruit. I show you how to make red sangria here.

Photo by: Amy Fletcher ©www.aefletchers.com

Amy Fletcher, www.aefletchers.com

Every week, Mark Oldman -- wine expert, acclaimed author and lead judge of the hit series The Winemakers -- shares with readers the basics of wine, while making it fun and practical. In the coming weeks, he'll tell you what to ask at a wine store, at what temperature to serve it and share his must-have wine tools.

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