A Halloween Wine Tasting: Sweet Wines
Vintage image sourced on Pinterest
Every year, I come across posts and articles galore recommending dry wines with Halloween candies. They always make me cringe. Everyone should feel free to explore the wide world of wine and food pairings - that’s not the issue. It’s that wines without a trace of residual sugar just don’t taste the same when paired with candy. Don’t take my word for it - try it for yourself. Both the dry wine and the candy will suffer in juxtaposition on your tongue. Acidity and tannins become harsher, and the candies’ flavors are dulled, as though a film has wiped away their best qualities.
Instead, try pairing Halloween candies with sweet wines. When wines are as sweet as the eats, everything just makes more sense. Chocolates taste more chocolate-y. Sour candies pop. Nutty flavors are echoed and become amplified, like toasty nuts on steroids.
In an effort to do right by Halloween, which I find myself missing while living abroad, I’ve created not just one but two Halloween-themed potluck-style wine tasting guides: one for the sweet wines, and one for the dry wines (which are not paired with sweets!).
Think of this guide as your invitation to go all-in on the sugary nostalgia from your trick-or-treating youth…while indulging in very grown-up wine pairings that take your go-to candies to a whole new level.
Stuff to know
This tasting covers a wide variety of sweet wines, from sparkling Chenin Blanc-based wines from the Loire Valley to sweet Rieslings to Moscato d’Asti from Piedmont, Vin Santo from Tuscany and two different styles of Port.
To learn more about sweet wines in general and how they’re made, check out Wine for Dessert. To learn more about fortified sweet wines, and in particular, the red ones that pair so well with chocolate, check out Fortified Reds.
What to look for in this tasting
As the name of the tasting suggests, there will be sweetness in these wines! The wines can be just lightly sweet or fully syrup-y, so pay attention to whether the sweetness ever feels cloying. Most sweet wines have high acidity levels that balance the sweetness, just like sugar does in lemonade. The intent here is for the wines to taste sweet, but lively in a way that keeps the wines from ever feeling too heavy.
Keep an eye on the alcohol levels in this tasting too. Some wines, like Moscato d’Asti and late harvest Riesling, have very low alcohol levels (7-9% abv) and will feel light on the palate. Others, like Tawny and Ruby Port, are fortified, with richness and heat (15-20% abv) that come through straight from the start.
As with all wines, don’t forget to look past the initial aromas and flavors to consider the length. Basically, how long do those flavors linger in your mouth? You know how when you eat a really complex, rich chocolate, the flavors linger long after the chocolate has melted on your tongue and been swallowed? “Length” is just like that. You’re looking for flavors that hang out and continue to taste yummy long after the wine has gone down the hatch.
The bottom line, as always, is whether you want to take another sip.
The wines
#1: Fruity Candy: Moscato d’Asti
Fruity candies can be chewy, like Starbursts, or hard shell-coated, like Skittles and jellybeans. They can be hard candies, like Jolly Ranchers or French pastilles. The category overlaps with gummy candies, and sure, there’s even a sour bite to some fruity candies, like tamarind candies or AirHeads. Whichever way you land, these candies will benefit from similarly juicy, fruity wines, especially those with gentle bubbles to keep things feeling fresh, like Moscato d’Asti.
Moscato d’Asti is both hugely popular and frequently dismissed. It’s a softly sparkling wine with a low alcohol level and plenty of sweetness that backs up the lush aromas and flavors of orange blossom, fresh peach and ripe grapes. So sure, it’s easily dismissed as an “unserious” wine, best enjoyed sitting outside over lunch (or brunch). But please don’t let those characteristics convince you that these aren’t seriously good quality wines.
Moscato d’Asti has been made in Piedmont, one of Italy’s most prestigious wine regions, for more than 150 years using a then-innovative method specially named for the wine made with a grape that’s been grown in the region since Roman times.
Muscat Blanc à Petit Grains, which goes by Moscato Bianco in Piedmont, is widely considered the best of the Muscat family, known for its outrageously abundant aromas that you’ll smell long before your nose nears the rim of the glass.
For this tasting, look for a Moscato d’Asti, rather than an Asti Spumante, since the latter wines will be fully sparkling instead of softly sparkling, or frizzante.
What to ask for: Ask by style name
Alternative(s): Demi-Sec Prosecco, Canelli or Canelli Riserva, Demi-Sec Crémants or Champagne
#2: Sour Candy: Vouvray Demi-Sec
When I was young, I used to eat giant SWEETarts and Extreme Sour Warheads so slowly that my tongue would roughen up like a cat’s after just a few, numbing my ability to taste much at all afterward. The experience didn’t deter me from sour candy though; I still enjoy that prickling-ly intense hit of acid every once in a while. Any sweet wine paired with these candies needs to be able to match that tart lemonade-like balance of sweet and sour, which is why I recommend a Vouvray Demi-Sec, ideally a Mousseux, or a sparkling one, to mimic that prickling feeling on your tongue.
The “mousseux” in Vouvray Mousseux (”voov-ray mousse-uh”) just means “sparkling,” and it’s included because there is a whole range of still and sweet wines made in Vouvray from Chenin Blanc, so the distinction matters. Chenin Blanc is known for its bracingly high acidity and subtle, romantically pretty flavors like bruised apple, honey, quince, chamomile and pear, which will often combine with flavors of lightly toasted hazelnuts from lees aging in these sparkling wines. The “demi-sec” on the label tells you that the wine is sweet, ideal for pairing with candy.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Riesling Sekt Halbtrocken (demi-sec) or Extra Trocken (extra-sec), Vouvray Pétillant Demi-Sec
#3: Gummy Candy: Late Harvest Riesling
I thought I knew gummy candy…and then I married my Swedish husband and moved to Denmark. The gummy candy culture in the Nordics is like nothing I’d ever seen. There are just so many types of gummies; far more than the bears, worms and cola bottles I grew up with. There are gummies of every texture and style, even gummy pizzas and sushi. Some gummies border on marshmallows, others have so much chew that your jaw gets a workout. These candies’ chewiness demands a fruity dessert wine with plenty of acidity to help wipe that gelatin feeling off your teeth. Enter: late harvest Rieslings.
When it comes to sweet German Rieslings, you have several options, from Spätlese Rieslings through to Auslese and Beerenauslese and all the way to Trockenbeerenauslese (AKA “TBA”) the sweetest of the sweet Rieslings. If you look outside of Germany, there are late harvest Rieslings from Alsace, France that go by the name “Vendanges Tardives.” New York State, Canada and even New Zealand all have delicious late harvest Riesling offerings these days too, so your options abound.
The idea is that producers harvest their Riesling grapes late so that they’re riper than ripe. Sometimes, the grapes are already dried like raisins, and occasionally, there’s even botrytis in the mix, a mold that sounds gross but somehow adds magical flavors of ginger, dried apricots, honeycomb and saffron to the wines.
Wherever they’re from, and whichever level of late harvest they’re at, these wines tend to have low-ish alcohol levels and very high acidity levels with flavors of baked peaches, elderflower, honey and apricots.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Tokaji, Riesling Ice Wines or Riesling Eiswein
#4: Caramel & Toffee Candy: Vin Santo
Caramel and toffee straddle the line between sweet and salty, with plenty of creamy and sticky tooth-coating textures delivering long-lasting flavor. Oxidized dessert wines like Vin Santo work outrageously well with these candies because they straddle the same lines, with their own flavors of caramel, dried apples and toasted nuts to add to the mix.
Vin Santo wines, or “holy wines,” are some of my husband’s favorite sweet wines, so they’ll always have a place in our home. Originally hailing from Tuscany in Central Italy, these wines are made from grapes that undergo the appassimento process, making them passito-style wines, made from grapes that are dried after the harvest.
Legend holds that in Tuscany, where local white grape varieties used to have a bigger role in the blend that comprised Chianti, peasant sharecroppers were allowed to keep some of the white grapes at the end of harvest to make small amounts of wine for their own families. They carefully dried their grapes in bunches hanging from attic rafters before pressing the precious juice to make wine, then aged the wine for years in barrels kept in those warm attic conditions, creating ripe, rich dessert wines enjoyed on special occasions like weddings or births.
On the other hand, there is evidence of passito-style wines that dates back to that somewhat vague time period known as antiquity, so where this trend really began is anyone’s best guess. Most Vin Santo wines are’t required to be made from a particular variety, and there are even some rare red versions made from Sangiovese. Most are made from white grapes though, typically a blend of Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia, both of which used to be part of the Chianti Classico blend…and are not allowed at all today, so plantings of these grape varieties are on the decline, making these wines all the more rare.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Vin Doux Naturels from southern France
#5: Nutty Candy: Tawny Port
Whenever I found a PayDay candy bar in my trick-or-treat haul as a kid, I’d offer it up to my dad, since I knew he had a soft spot for the peanut-laden candy. Now that my parents live in Texas, the PayDays have given way to Lammes chewy pecan pralines, essentially the pecan version of the peanut-y treat. If you, too are a sucker for all nut-based candies, prepare to love them even more once paired with a Tawny Port.
I will never forget tasting a Graham’s 40-year old Tawny Port for the first time. I’d tried a few different Tawny Ports before, but nothing as old as that. The scents of caramel, toasted macadamia nuts, brown butter, sultanas and butterscotch burst out of the glass long before I put it under my nose. And that finish, wow. I could taste that wine for ages. The decadence lingered in the best way possible.
I like to think of Tawny Ports as the salted caramel blondies of the Port world. They’re the kind of indulgent sweet that should probably feel saccharine, but somehow don’t. Tawny Ports are blends of Ports from multiple vintages, which are aged in old wooden barrels for years. Decades, really. Most of the Tawny Ports you’ll find outside of Portugal have an age listed on the bottle, usually 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years. As you’d imagine, the older the age, the more expensive the Port, since it’s not exactly free storing and managing wines for that long. You do not have to splash out on a 40-year old Tawny Port to get the experience, though an aged-indicated Tawny Port, 10 years or more, will be your best bet for this tasting.
Tawny Ports get their name from their distinctive brownish-reddish color, created from oxidation, since winemakers intentionally leave some head room in the barrels to allow oxygen to come in contact with the wine. You won’t have any sediment in a Tawny Port, like you would in a Vintage or LBV, because it happens naturally while the wines are aging in barrels, before they ever see a bottle. No decanting required.
Note: If you prefer white chocolate over the darker stuff, Tawny Port is your friend.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Reserve Tawny, Colheita Port (a rare vintage Tawny Port), Malmsey Madeira, Rutherglen Muscat
#6: Chocolate Candy: Ruby Port
I’m always surprised when I meet someone who doesn’t like chocolate. Like, at all. Not liking chocolate in certain forms, like as ice cream or chocolate cake, sure. But no chocolate at all? Unfathomable. If you, like me, thoroughly enjoy exploring the wide world of chocolate, Port wines are about to become your new BFF. Few wine world pairings rival the simplicity and sheer indulgence of chocolate & Port.
Ruby Ports, which are more accessible price-wise than their Late Bottled Vintage or Vintage counterparts, are usually blends of wines from multiple vintages, focused on fruit purity over complexity from aging or strong tannic structure. Port houses tend to each have their own signature style of Ruby Port, just like how Champagne houses have a style for their flagship non-vintage wines. Some producers lean toward bright raspberry and plummy flavors with subtle cocoa aromas in their Ruby Ports, while others will aim toward spicier aromas of cloves and cinnamon with darker fruit like blackberries and cassis.
What to ask for: Ask by name, preferably a Reserve Ruby
Alternative(s): Late Bottled Vintage Port, Vintage Port, late harvest Zinfandel, Recioto della Valpolicella
Bonus: Licorice & Minty Candy with Barolo Chinato
Since I live in Denmark, I can’t help nodding to the Nordic fascination with licorice. Hence this bonus recommendation to this list: what to drink with all things licorice or minty candies like York Peppermint Patties, After Eights and Junior Mints…Barolo Chinato.
Barolos are dry red wines from Piedmont in northern Italy. Barolo Chinatos (kee-nah-toe) are sweet, fortified and aromatized wines that taste entirely different from Barolos, even though they’re made from the same grape, Nebbiolo, and both have Nebbiolo’s signature high tannins and acidity, which might take you by surprise when paired with sweetness.
Quinine in Italian is “china,” derived from the quinine tree’s scientific name, Cinchona officinalis, hence Chinato. Quinine is just one of many different aromatic herbs, fruits and spices that can be added to a Barolo Chinato though. Each producer has his or her own secret recipe, which can include quinine, gentian root, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom seeds, bitter or sweet oranges, cinnamon, cloves, mint, vanilla and more. Winemakers typically infuse the aromatics into a ‘neutral’ spirit that’s used to fortify the wine, adding flavor and alcohol together. Some producers macerate the wines with aromatics too, and many add sugar and age the wines in barrel and/or bottle to thoroughly incorporate all the flavors before releasing for sale.
These wines were once intended for medicinal use, functioning as a panacea for everything from digestion to colds and flus. While we have plenty of different options for remedying bodily ailments these days, Barolo Chinato is still a remedy for the soul. Especially when paired with bitter dark chocolate.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Other Chinatos from Piedmont made from grapes like Barbera
Tasting tips
The eats
As a Halloween candy-focused tasting, this is your opportunity to let your inner sweet tooth roar. Deck out a candy-laden “charcuterie” board if you’re artistic, or simply feel free to arrange the candies in bowls. I tend to lean toward bowls myself, especially since it’s easier to sort candy by “type” that way: fruity, gummy, nutty, caramel-y and chocolate-y. There are plenty of Halloween table décor opportunities whichever way you slice it.
Now, if you, like me, adore sugar but get overwhelmed after a certain amount, consider setting out some salty snacks and cheeses to give your guests’ palates a break from the sweetness. Strong, salty cheeses work really well here, from Roquefort to Feta and Comté. Pretzels, toasted nuts, popcorn, bread with chicken liver pâté or fois gras and traditional charcuterie meats are also welcome additions, giving your guests the opportunity to reset before tasting each style of candy & sweet wine pairing.
The prep
Some of these wines may take time for your guests to find, depending on where you live, especially since some of these wines are produced in very small amounts and aren’t the trendiest of wines at the moment. In the United States, availability really depends on the city and state, so I’d advise giving your guests at least 2 weeks to find their assigned wines. It’s also worth paying attention to the alternatives listed within each wine if any are difficult to source where you live.
There is a wide range of prices for all of these wines, so it’s up to you as the host to decide if you want to set a price range or let your guests determine what they’re each comfortable spending. Hosts should be aware that some sweet wines will be sold in half-sized bottles as well. Basically, if it comes in a smaller bottle, a smaller pour is advisable too. I promise, every drop in those bottles is liquid gold.
Please encourage your guests to give their wines some pre-tasting fridge time, or have an ice bucket ready for a quick dunk to sufficiently chill the wines before tasting.
The Ports are best with just a little bit of coolness to them. Imagine that you are grabbing these bottles straight from a fancy cellar where the air feels brisk and damp. If you live somewhere where it’s cold already, the time in the trunk on the drive over might just be enough.
A note on the tasting order: The wines in this tasting are listed in the order in which they should be tasted, so if you have fewer than 6 guests, remove wines from either end of the list so that you still have a natural progression.
