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Adirondack Scenic Railroad offers a spooky wine-tasting adventure. Besides being entertained by ghosts and goblins, visitors are treated to a grand session of wine tasting on the train.
Halloween has always revolved around kids and candies. However, trends have changed over the decades, and today, Halloween is very much an adult's event, as it is for kids. Adults throw costume parties and have a ghoulish time together! There are lots of unique ways to entertain adults during such parties. While most of the attention is paid to food, decorations, and outfits, incorporating Halloween wines is sure to add that extra spirit to your celebrations!
Certain wineries have gone the extra mile to make your Halloween party even more special! They've introduced a line of spooky wines, which not only look the part with their ghoulish bottle carvings and labels, but also have a sinister vibe in them. These wines can be given as party favors, or can be prizes won by fortunate party winners. So, which are the different good, scary wines you can serve this Halloween?
Best Wines for Halloween
Poizin
Armida Winery from Healdsburg, California (Dry Creek Valley), has come up with the ideal Halloween wine. Their Zinfandel wine is packaged perfectly for this occasion. It not only has a red skull and crossbones symbol engraved on its bottle in blood red, but also has the bottle cap dipped in red candle wax, to accentuate Halloween's spooky theme. Poizin is sold with the tag line―'the wine to die for ...'. At about $25 per bottle, this lush and delicious wine is certainly worth dying for! Then there's their Reserve Poizin, which is touted to be their best Zinfandel. What's even more crazier is its package; it's packed in a ghostly little coffin that simply raises its spooky quotient! However, it's priced at $80, which can be quite steep. If it's within your price range, go for it.
Flavor Profile
Poizin, the wine to die for, is known for its soft, velvety feel that coats your entire palate, after just a sip of this sinful, spooky wine. Although initially tart, you gradually get the lovely overtones of milk chocolate, vanilla, sweet oak, coffee, caramel, black plum, blackberry, peppercorns, and black cherries.
Armida Winery also offers other interesting wines that complement the season. Their Antidote wine, available at $20 a bottle, is a dry white wine served in a lovely blue bottle, with a skull and crossbones symbol on it. It also has the image of a snake wriggling around their Antidote label. If you're looking for whites, this one is a good pick.
Sinister Hand
Another great wine with a great legendary tale behind it is the Sinister Hand from Owen Roe Wines. According to the legendary tale, during the 17th century, there was a feud between two Irish revolutionary families. The two families agreed to compete with each other in a rowing race, wherein the first family to touch the shore got to be the ruler of the land. Now, a member of one of the families cut his hand and threw it onto the shore, thereby, roping in the victory for his team. The wine has been named after this sinister hand, and the bottle features a creepy hand with blood dripping off its wrist; perfect for Halloween.
Flavor Profile
This Rhone-style red wine from Washington State costs $24, a little on the expensive side, but definitely worth the bargain. In terms of flavor, this full-bodied wine bursts with raspberry and currant overtones. As far as the aroma is concerned, this wine is a lovely combination of blueberries, iron, blackberries, cloves, cocoa, and cranberry spice cake. This dark red wine is predominantly a Grenache, but contains other grape varieties as well. It's a blend of Grenache (70%), Syrah (16%), Mourvedre (9%), and Cinsault (5%).
With its amputated hand on the label of the bottle, it's a must-have wine for Halloween. Sinister Hand is a rich and elegant wine that you should definitely try.
Vampire Pinot Noir
Vampire Vineyards have introduced a whole line of Vampire wines, which are simply perfect for Halloween parties. In fact, you can say they've devoted themselves to producing wines with a ghoulish appeal. To add to all the spookiness, these vineyards are rumored to be run by a group of vampires. These wines are quite popular among the younger crowd (mostly below the age of 30). Most people having a vampire theme party, often find these blood red wines to be perfect. Vampire wines offer a whole range of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, White Zinfandel, and Pinot Grigio. Their Pinot Noir is worth a try!
Flavor Profile
This ambrosial, mild red wine emanates lovely wild strawberry and forest fruit aromas. It's loved for its soft and velvety texture, and is great with game and venison dishes. It's a wine with low tannic content. Moreover, its natural acids have been perfectly integrated into the wine, which is what gives it its robust intensity that's loved so much.
Besides their Vampire line, they also have their Dracula wines that you can look into. Not only will these wines please your gothic senses, but these complex wines are also pretty kind on the wallet, ranging from $13 to $35. You needn't be organizing a Halloween party to buy one of these spooky wines. If you've been invited to one, take a bottle for the host. Or else just buy one to enjoy it yourself.
Bone Dry Red Cabernet Sauvignon
Bone Dry Red Cabernet Sauvignon, by Elk Creek Vineyards, in Owenton, Kentucky, is yet another creepy wine that complements the Halloween theme very well. The label on the bottle features a creepy skeleton, whose teeth and vertebrae you can literally count. The red bottle cap is a nice additional touch to the gray skeleton. This ghoulish wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, giving it a lovely acidic and savory character.
Flavor Profile
Besides its perfect Halloween label, this wine also has a tantalizingly eerie appeal to it. Its primary black currant flavor is simply fantastic, with overtones of red berry, chocolate, and spice that stimulate one's palate. This red wine's a lovely blend of softness and richness, all at once. The harmony in the wine is worth shelling out $25 for a bottle.
Besides this Bone Dry Red wine, Elk Creek Vineyards also offers a Ghostly White Chardonnay that features the shadow of struggling hands on its label. This creepy white wine variety has been barrel fermented in stainless steel tanks, and is available at about $20 per bottle.
The Velvet Devil Merlot
Charles Smith Wines also have a lovely Halloween wine you can try out. This reddish-velvet, eerie wine touts to be naughty, smooth, and nice, which is why it's also called the 'velvet devil'. Its smoothness and velvety feel on the palate attributes for the velvet aspect, while the black-colored trident on its label attributes for the devil. Hailing from Washington State's Columbia Valley, this wine is prepared from Merlot grapes, although often blended with a little Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Syrah. Priced at around $12, this wine lies in the affordable wine category.
Flavor Profile
Smooth and velvety on the palate, this medium-bodied merlot is quite balanced and rich at the same time. A sip of it literally feels like you're sipping liquid velvet. Guess this is where the 'velvet' in the name comes from. On drinking it, you'll get bursts of blackberries, chocolate-covered cherries, plum, cedar, sweet spices, and a lovely tobacco scent towards the end. Merlots, as we all know, go well with lamb and beef dishes. So, pair your Merlot with the main course and enjoy!
Besides this Velvet Devil, you can also take a look at the other spooky wines that Charles Smith Wines has to offer. Their King Coal Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah comes with a spooky skeleton (and a spooky crown) on its label. Then there's the Royal City Syrah, which also comes with a black and white label of a King's crown, skull, and crossbones.
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The images of the wine bottles are just representatives, and are not of the actual brands.)
There are many more scary wines out there, like the Phobia from Black Widow Winery, the Bucket O' Blood from Fairview Cellars, Afraid of the Dark from Moon Curser Vineyards, etc. While choosing wines to spice up your party, choose them according to the food you're serving. Then again, since you only intend to scare your guests with the spooky wine, and not your wallets, pick those within your price range. Happy Halloween!
