IDEA #4: A FREAKY GOOD HALLOWEEN WINE PARTY
 With the weather getting cooler and Halloween lurking around the corner it seems like a fitting time to drink some inky black wine…buaaahhhh haaah haah! (That was a scary laugh, by the way.) OK seriously, when isn’t a good time to drink wine? But then again I can’t think of many better opportunities than while you’re wearing some gory vampire costume. At least that way when you spill all over yourself, like usual, you can just say that the red stains are part of your costume. With that in mind we would like to offer up a few suggestions that will help you throw a sweet Halloween Wine Party!
First things first – the costume. Halloween offers us a one-day free pass to dress up and act like someone other than ourselves, whether that be a blood (a.k.a. wine) thirsty vampire, a sexy temptress, or even a wine swirling snob. Before choosing your costume here are a couple suggestions you should keep in mind:
1. Plan a costume that doesn’t obscure your mouth.
The ability to get wine from the glass to your mouth will be a critical part of your wine party enjoyment. It’s not real satisfying if you have to drink your wine out of a straw.
2. Refrain from using too much makeup.
If you’re the type of person that worries about getting fingerprints all over your wine glass then definitely don’t choose a costume that includes a lot of makeup. That stuff gets everywhere and is sure to show up all over your glass.
3. Be careful of wine spills.
Halloween parties are notorious for spilling, especially by those people with expansive costumes that continuously bump into everything. So if it’s expensive or you rent your costume watch out!
4. Choose a costume that works with the wine.
As we mentioned previously, a vampire, drunken monk, ax wilding murderer, or any other costume that includes blood as part of the act, is always a good bet. That way your wine can actually become part of the act and you don’t have to worry about spills.
 One way to integrate your costume (and party) even further with wine would be to have everyone match or coordinate with the label from the bottle of wine that they bring. So many wine labels these days have their own animals, characters or themes, why not dress to match?!? It’s a fun way to incorporate wine not only into your guests’ costumes but your party as well. This way you can also make sure that everyone brings a bottle! You could even offer up some prizes for the best wine label likeness. For some costume ideas check out our unique label art section, which includes labels with monkeys, jokers, fish, dogs, frogs, bears, chairs, old farts and saucy tarts!
Besides dressing up, one of the other great enjoyments of Halloween is the option to feed out on as much candy as you can possibly stuff in your face – all in one night! And on a night filled with plenty of dark chocolate treats what better drink to go with it than wine? If you want to get really creative you can even try pairing the chocolate/candy with the wine. If you want to stick to the standards such as Snickers, Butterfinger, Three Musketeers, Almond Joy, and Reeses Buttercups, here are a couple ideas you could pair:
• Almond Joy and Sparkling Wine
• Snickers and Sangiovese
• Three Musketeers and Ice Dessert Wine
• Hershey’s Dark Chocolate and Syrah
• Caramel Apples and Sauvignon Blanc
• Candy Corn and Chardonnay
Another way to add more spook factor to your Halloween wine party, besides the usual creepy cobwebs, fake spiders, scary music, mass murderer with a chainsaw hiding in the closet, etc…is to mix up a bloody batch of our Satanic Sangria! Throw in some fleshy fruit such as peaches and oranges to create the affect of just that – raw flesh. Some lemon rind for leathery skin. Then throw in a dozen large seeded grapes for floating eyeballs. Put everything together in a cauldron (or a punch bowl if you don’t have one) and add a few rocks of dry ice to create a disturbingly eerie bubbling fog concoction. Below is the recipe including ingredients and step-by-step instructions for preparing the sangria.
Ingredients:
1 bottle of red wine
2 oranges (pulled apart)
4 peaches (cut into quarters)
1 dozen large seeded grapes
5 teaspoons sugar
2 lemon skins (torn)
A couple lbs of dry ice
Steps:
1. Choose a red wine - Sangria is a refreshing drink and you don't need to use a vintage wine. Something young and inexpensive will do just fine. Put the wine into a bowl, add the sugar, and stir until it is properly dissolved.
2. Peel the two oranges, pull apart into quarters, and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Once most of the juice is out and the orange quarters are slightly mashed/mangled drop them in as well.
3. Wash the peaches, peel them and cut them into quarters. Squeeze or mash slightly to create a more fleshy appearance and add them to the bowl. If peaches are not available you can use any other soft in-season fruit.
4. Put the bowl into the fridge. Sangria should always be served chilled. If you want to reduce the alcohol concentration, add ice cubes and slices of lemon. If you want to increase the alcohol concentration, add a small amount of cognac or rum!
5. Finally, pour sangria into a cauldron (available at most Halloween retailers) or large punch bowl, toss in a couple chunks of dry ice and prepare for a perfectly scary Halloween wine concoction.
Now let’s say you do decide to make some of our Satanic Sangria for your party and really want to go that extra mile. Check out the black Riedel glass collection.
This all black crystal not only fits a Halloween themed wine party perfectly but the glasses are also stem less so you don’t have to worry about knocking them over. After Halloween you can continue to use them for wine tasting parties. It not only makes guessing the correct varietal difficult, but often times even figuring out the correct color can be challenging. Swirl, sniff, and taste from these dark glasses to really confuse your senses and heighten your wine experience. You can find the black Riedel collection on Amazon.com.
Use any or all of these ghoulish tips to pull off the perfect Halloween wine party. But most importantly dress up, party down, eat candy, scare people and enjoy the wine. Happy Halloween!
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