It’s that time of year again for hedonistic pairings of Halloween candy and wine. According to the National Retail Federation, the 2022 Halloween season is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels of participation, which would be an estimated $2.6 billion spent in 2019 on Halloween candy alone. That’s quite the mountain of Skittles, Starbursts and other colorful confectionery. Halloween candy is known more for refined sugar than refinement, leading many wine professionals in the past to view brightly colored wrappers as unworthy of sharing the table with wines of quality. Today many pillars of pretentiousness have crumbled in the world of wine, with a great deal of wine media and influencers more than happy to promote and advertise pairings aimed as being fun, approachable and inclusive for the everyday wine lover. Are these Halloween candy pairings just simple fun or have they veered too far into entertainment, swirling the wine glass from snobbery to toxic positivity?

I’m old enough to remember when the snotty sommelier was still in fashion. Prized for their ability to turn their nose up at anything that wasn’t a classic pairing or at least a Premier Cru. Now very out of fashion, these wine professionals could learn from the phase, “Don’t yuck my yum.” A simple expression that reminds that the happiness of the person enjoying something exceeds any objection they may have. An important lesson that unfortunately has to be relearned occasionally. Once during floor service, a guest asked for my opinion regarding pairing chocolate to wine. Polite at first my thoughts quickly proceeded to spoil the idea of its perfection. Imagine my face when I discovered in a few weeks my work would be hosting a large event featuring this guest and the large chocolate producer for which they worked.

Some recomended wine pairings for Halloween from *Wine Enthusiast*

From ice cubes in Chardonnay to Coca-Cola in Grand Cru Burgundy, the merger of wine and enjoyment can sometimes be polarizing but the recommended Halloween candy pairings by some of the biggest and most influential names in wine media often have me scared every year they are released. They often seem lazy to me, naming single variety pairings like Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon without vintage or region as if they all tasted similar enough. Sparkling wines are popular on these kinds of lists but without any posted residual sugar category, such as Brut or Demi Sec which could greatly influence the pairing. I’m also baffled why dry red wines keep being chosen when there are so many historical sweet wines being overlooked that could potentially be a great match. I decided to try out these pairings myself to see if I was missing anything along with a few sweet and fortified wines that I thought could have potential to satisfy with these sweet treats.

Halloween Wine & Candy Pairings

The 2015 Château Suduiraut Sauternes made some sense to pair with a Snickers bar with its weighty intensity of orange marmalade, apricot and honey flavors. Since Sauternes is such a fancy wine, I made sure to cut my Snickers bar with a fork and knife like an episode of Seinfeld. What works for this pairing is the combination of salty peanut, caramel and nougat which is a wonderful match for the sweet honeyed wine. What didn’t work as much was the chocolate which I thought would match better with the orange citrus quality of the wine.

2018 Donnafugata Ben Rye Passito Di Pantelleria- Viscous sun dried Muscat fruitiness

The 2018 Donnafugata Ben Ryé Passito Di Pantelleria was a fun surprise paired with Butterfinger candy. Sourced from the island of Pantelleria, found between Sicily and northern Africa, where strong winds dry out the Zibbio (Muscat of Alexandria) grapes. Left in the hot sun for up to 4 weeks to concentrate sugar, these whittered grapes must be laboriously handpicked as the vines are grown low to the ground and partially buried to survive the strong dry winds. This process has been honored as a UNESCO cultural heritage sustainable practice. The roasted peanut flavor, molasses sugar and patented crispety crunchety corn flakes found inside this bright yellow wrapper pairs well with the dried apricot, candied orange peel and honeyed viscosity of the wine.

The recommended Pinot Noir and Zinfandel wines were drowned out when paired with chocolate, becoming tart and unable to match the sugary intensity and weight. What could match was the Jeremy Wine Company sweet fortified port styled blend. Jeremy Wine Co uses many of the same grapes found in Port such as Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao and Bastardo along with fortified old vine Zinfandel. Just like Willy Wonka, Jeremy adds a secret ingredient to his creation, an Italian unsweetened cocoa powder that adds a chocolaty perfume that will make you believe that you just opened a box of chocolate truffles.

Many of the other wines and candies together can be summed up as a win for the candy, as they almost always bullied and stripped the wines from their fruit flavors. The floral and fruity Martini & Rossi Moscato D’Asti did the best against the waxy texture and sugared intensity of the dreaded candy corn and intense flavors found in Starbursts. The LaMarca Prosecco was no match for Starbursts or those orange, yellow and white kernels but it did match well with tart and sweet Bottle Caps. If you’re guessing which flavor worked best, it wasn’t grape but orange. Since the wines kept being overpowered, I opened up a bottle of Stella Rosa Black Semi Sweet and Reese’s peanut butter cup which offered some peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich vibes. The Hersey’s Special Dark Chocolate, only mildly sweet, let the fruit flavors of the Stella Rosa wine shine while still being able to taste the delicious slight bitter and creamy chocolate.

Somewhere in the fog of personal opinion lies the truth. While I did enjoy some of these wines and Halloween treats together, in my opinion these sugary unions are made to sell candy and content for clicks online. The quality of some makes me wonder if these combinations are actually tried or just work in theory, like a sommelier throwing together pairings of necessity due to last-minute changes by a chef. If Prosecco and candy corn truly worked together it would be found past the month of October but just because wine and Halloween candy may not be my guilty pleasure doesn’t mean I need to ruin someone else’s yum. Even though October is a month filled with fright, don’t be scared to reach for some candy with your wine. It may be helpful though to be wearing a costume to hide any disappointment you may have.