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Halloween candy deserves a wine pairing, too. Maybe you’re planning a Halloween wine tasting with friends and want to trade the cheese board for something less serious. Or maybe you have kids, which means October 31 comes with the sacred parental responsibility of inspecting their candy haul and, purely for quality control, confiscating a few of the good ones.
Either way, step away from the artisanal crackers. Wine pairing doesn’t always have to mean oysters and chablis or steak and cabernet. So, in the spirit of Halloween, we’re pairing wine with candy and junk food.
All seven wines are available at the LCBO, making this an easy Halloween wine tasting to recreate at home. Consider it the grown-up version of sorting your candy haul, wine glasses included.
7 wine and snack pairings for Halloween
1. Bread & Butter Prosecco + Sour Patch Kids
This pairing is chaos. Delicious, fizzy chaos. Bread & Butter Prosecco is made in northeastern Italy near Venice, bringing apple, pear, white peach, citrus and floral notes wrapped up in soft, persistent bubbles. Like most prosecco, those bubbles are created using the Martinotti-Charmat method, where secondary fermentation takes place in pressurized tanks rather than individual bottles. The technique helps preserve the fresh fruit and floral character that makes prosecco so easy to love.
Now throw Sour Patch Kids into the equation. The candy hits with a puckering sour coating before turning fruity and sweet. Against it, the prosecco brings freshness, bubbles and complementary orchard and citrus flavours that reset your palate after each sugary-sour hit. It’s a little chaotic, but that’s what makes it fun. The sour candy brings out the prosecco’s bright fruit, while the bubbles keep the pairing fresh and playful.
2. Romeo & Juliet Pinot Grigio + Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar Chips
Salt-and-vinegar chips don’t exactly scream wine pairing, but stay with me because this is one of my personal favourites. Romeo & Juliet Pinot Grigio comes from Veneto in northeastern Italy, the heartland of Italian pinot grigio. It’s light and refreshing, with pear, green apple, citrus and white peach, plus delicate floral and mineral notes.
Now for the chips. Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar Chips bring salt, crunch and that unmistakable vinegar tang. The pinot grigio has enough acidity to stand up to the vinegar, while its crisp citrus and orchard fruit cut through the richness of those kettle-cooked chips. Even the salt helps, softening the wine’s acidity and letting more of that fruit shine. Crisp, salty, tangy and dangerously easy to keep snacking on, this is one of those pairings that just makes sense once you try it.
3. Jackson-Triggs Proprietors’ Selection Cabernet Sauvignon + Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Cabernet and chocolate? Sure. Cabernet and a peanut butter cup? Now we have your attention. The trick here is choosing the right cabernet. Jackson-Triggs Proprietors’ Selection Cabernet Sauvignon is made in Ontario using domestic and international grapes, with blackcurrant, cassis and cherry, subtle oak, very light tannins and a touch of residual sugar. In other words, it’s softer and fruitier than the big, dry, tannic cabernet you might be picturing.
That matters when Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups enter the mix. The milk chocolate plays into the wine’s dark berry fruit, while creamy, salty peanut butter provides contrast and helps bring that fruit forward. And because the wine has softer tannins and a little sweetness of its own, the candy is less likely to leave it tasting aggressively dry or bitter. Would I pair every cabernet with a peanut butter cup? Absolutely not. This one, though, is worth stealing a Reese’s from the Halloween haul.
4. Cave de Lugny Mâcon-Lugny Saint-Pierre Chardonnay + Hawkins Cheezies
Consider this our very Canadian contribution to the list: white Burgundy and Hawkins Cheezies. Cave de Lugny Mâcon-Lugny Saint-Pierre is 100 per cent chardonnay from a 19-hectare site in southern Burgundy’s Mâconnais, where vines averaging 35 years old grow over Jurassic limestone with Kimmeridgian-derived soils. It undergoes full malolactic fermentation and spends time on fine lees, giving the wine a rounder, creamier texture while keeping its citrus freshness.
That combination is exactly what makes Hawkins Cheezies work. The salty, intensely cheesy crunch meets the Chardonnay’s rounded texture, while its acidity cuts through the fat and refreshes your palate between handfuls. Salt can also soften the perception of acidity, letting more of the wine’s fruit come through. French terroir meets one of Canada’s most iconic orange snacks. Somehow, it works.
5. Sensi Dalcampo Chianti + Cherry Nibs
Cherry meets cherry. Sometimes the obvious answer is also the delicious one. Sensi Dalcampo Chianti comes from Tuscany and is made predominantly from sangiovese, bringing fresh cherry and blackberry fruit, subtle spice and the bright acidity that makes chianti such a versatile food wine.
There’s some serious terroir behind our very unserious candy pairing, too. The Tuscan vineyards sit on hilly soils containing marine fossils alongside marl, sandstone, clay and sand. After fermentation, the wine spends around six months in stainless steel with fine lees, helping keep its fresh fruit front and centre.
Cherry Nibs pick up that juicy cherry character without bringing the intense sweetness of many Halloween candies. Their chewy red-fruit flavour amplifies the sangiovese’s fruit, while the wine’s acidity keeps everything lively. Consider this chianti and candy pairing the grown-up evolution of picking all the red candies out of your Halloween bag first.
6. La Riojana Organic Cabernet Sauvignon + Doritos Nacho Cheese
I love a high-low pairing, and organic cabernet with Nacho Cheese Doritos definitely qualifies. La Riojana Organic Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Argentina’s Famatina Valley and spends six months in French and American oak, giving us ripe fruit, spice, smooth tannins and enough flavour to take on a Dorito.
The winery has a pretty great story, too. La Riojana started as a co-operative in 1940 and now works with hundreds of growers, many farming small vineyard plots. They even use sheep in the organic vineyards to help control weeds and naturally give a little back to the soil.
Back to the Doritos. You’ve got cheese, salt, crunch and a lot of seasoning, so you need a wine that can keep up. The cabernet’s ripe fruit stands up to all that flavour, while the spice and oak work surprisingly well with the savoury, cheesy seasoning. A little serious wine, a little cheese dust. I’m into it.
7. On The Doc.K Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie + Skittles
Taste the rainbow, then pour a glass of pinot grigio. On The Doc.K Pinot Grigio comes from Delle Venezie DOC in northeastern Italy. It’s light, crisp and refreshing, with 12 per cent alcohol and just a touch of residual sugar.
Skittles bring a whole handful of fruit flavours at once, and that’s where this gets fun. The candy is definitely sweeter than the wine, so this isn’t a textbook pairing. Instead, it’s about that contrast between sweet, fruity candy and a cold, crisp white.
Pinot grigio’s acidity helps clean up all that sugar, while its fresh fruit character keeps it from getting completely lost. And because we’re talking Halloween, there is really only one rule here: Grab a handful, take a sip and see which colour works best.
