Just as you've recovered from the last Halloween season, around it comes again.
More and more, adults as well as kids are celebrating this scary time of year. Halloween has become a great time to unwind from the stresses of the year without embarrassing yourself or insulting any of your friends or neighbors. It has become the custom to send the kids out to trick or treat while the adults have a party of their own, and if there is a party, there will usually be wine.
Some chose to make and serve strange Halloween wines by changing the color with food coloring, which never goes over well. Would you drink a bright electric blue or green wine? There are some very good wines in the marketplace that will fit beautifully with the spooky season.
Gnarly Head Authentic Red ($15)Gnarly Head Authentic Red is a bold, full-bodied dark red wine with an almost black color that fits perfectly with Halloween. There is merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah blended in this spooky-looking wine to make what we can only call a blood-colored explosion of aroma and flavor.
The aromas of blackberry, cherry and spice seem to leap out of the glass and continue on to the flavor and finish.
Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel ($13)Zinfandel grapes often result in a dark, full-bodied red wine perfect for the holiday. It is always fun when a guest, who is not up on wine, will remark they did not know there also are red zinfandel grapes.
This wine seems to draw its flavor from the very soul of the grape by displaying a deep and multileveled raspberry flavor, augmented by the flavors of black pepper and mushrooms and further enhanced by vanilla, ending in a splash of raspberry.
Barefoot Bubbly Fusion Sparkling Wines ($10) Barefoot Wine makes so many types and styles of sparkling wine that the choice, depending on your taste, is large.
The new Fusion series, which includes tropical, peach, berry and citrus selections, opens up a huge spectrum of wine to choose from at low prices
Don Miguel Gascon 2013 Malbec ($15)Made to be big, bold and solid, this wine beautifully displays what the malbec grape is capable of when made by dedicated vintners.
Being a typical malbec, the wine has an inky, almost black color (which is the perfect color for Halloween) and displays the aromas of blackberry, plum, black cherries and a hint of mocha. Cherries, plums, cinnamon and coffee are the dominant flavors, along with added complexity provided by a hint of oak. Use this wine if your Halloween table is themed in a Spanish motif.
Damilano Barbera D’Asti ($20) If your table is themed Italian rather than Spanish, the Italians also have their inky dark wines; in this case the Damilano Barbera D’Asti.
This wine has a deep ruby color and displays the aromas of raspberries, truffles, blackberries and spice. The flavor showcases berries with a splendid cloud of oak in the background. The wonderful thing about this wine is that there are no sharp acids or tannins.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.
