Spooky Natural Wine Labels: Halloween Bottles Paired with Horror Movies
Natural wine labels are weird, and we mean that as a compliment. Most of the growers we work with are tiny operations. They draw their labels themselves or hand the job to a friend who paints, and nobody from a marketing department ever gets a say. That's how you end up with a Greek red with a goat staring out of a purple label, or a white from the Alps named after a rash.
So for Halloween we walked the shelves at 171 Elizabeth St and pulled every bottle that looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Then we argued about which movie. This is what we settled on.
Seven spooky bottles and the horror movies to pour them with
1. Addams Family Values (1993) + Dimakopoulos Koritsanos "The Black" 2022
Wednesday Addams does not smile. In Addams Family Values, she gets shipped off to a cheerful summer camp full of blond kids in polo shirts, refuses every activity, and ends up turning the camp's Thanksgiving play into a riot that leaves the place on fire. Christina Ricci plays her completely deadpan, and she steals the whole movie.
Now look at this label and tell us that isn't her little cousin. Dimakopoulos' "The Black" shows a pale girl with a dark bob and big round glasses, giving you the exact same unimpressed stare from a deep purple background. It's an organically farmed red from the Peloponnese in southern Greece, and if you look closely, the producer's logo next to the name is a tiny goat. Pour it during the camp scenes and try not to smile either.
Shop Dimakopoulos "The Black" 2022 →
2. The Crow (1994) + Celler Frisach Sang de Corb 2021
Sang de Corb means "crow's blood" in Catalan. The label is a black-ink drawing of a young woman's face, crowned with curls and grape clusters, with dark feathered wings spreading out behind her and a single streak of red running down from one eye. Underneath, it prints two dates: July 25 and 1938. That's the day the Battle of the Ebro began, the longest battle of the Spanish Civil War, fought around the village of Corbera d'Ebre, where Celler Frisach makes this wine. Brothers Joan and Francesc Ferré made it to honor the people who died there. Across the top runs an old local saying, lo vi fa sang, roughly "wine makes blood," meaning it makes you tougher.
The grapes are Garnacha, the fuzzy-leaved Garnacha Peluda and Carignan, all grown together in one old vineyard with almond, olive and apple trees between the rows. Everything is picked at once, trodden by foot and fermented together. You get dark cherry, violets and a little spice from about a year in wood.
In The Crow (1994), Eric Draven comes back from the dead on Devil's Night, the night before Halloween, a year after he and his fiancée were killed. A crow leads him back. He paints his face white with black lines running down from his eyes, and once you've seen that, it's hard not to see it in the red streak on this label. The movie is as much about grief as revenge, which suits a wine made to remember people.
Shop Celler Frisach Sang de Corb 2021 →
3. Little Shop of Horrors (1986) + Domaine des Fables Poison Ivy 2023
Audrey II starts out as a cute little plant in a Skid Row flower shop. Seymour feeds it a few drops of his own blood to keep it alive. Then it starts to grow, and to sing, and to ask for a lot more than a few drops.
Domaine des Fables' Poison Ivy looks like the poster for a 1950s creature feature. A red-haired villainess glares out from a tangle of thorny black vines, surrounded by fat red buds that look like they'd bite if you got too close, all under dripping slime-green letters. That was all the excuse we needed to pour it during "Feed Me." Inside is Jacquère, the everyday white grape of Savoie in the French Alps, from a small domaine in Serrières-en-Chautagne, Savoie. It's bottled unfiltered, so it pours a little hazy. Jacquère is light and crisp, the white people in Savoie drink with fondue, so put out some melty cheese.
Shop Domaine des Fables Poison Ivy 2023 →
4. Cat People (1942) + Domaine des Fables Chatawak 2023
In Cat People, Irena is a Serbian fashion illustrator living in New York. She believes she comes from a village of women who turn into panthers when they get jealous or let themselves fall for someone. Her new husband thinks it's nerves. The movie barely shows anything. A bus hissing to a stop on a dark street and a shadow moving around an empty swimming pool do all the work, and it still holds up eighty years later.
Chatawak comes from the same grower as Poison Ivy, and it doesn't hide the joke: chat is French for cat. The label is a blonde anime cat girl with blue ears, a tail and a collar, glaring at you over her shoulder against hot pink. She isn't scary, but Irena would understand her. It's a red from Serrières-en-Chautagne in Savoie. Pour it lightly chilled and save the second glass for the swimming pool scene.
Shop Domaine des Fables Chatawak 2023 →
5. Halloween (1978) + Domaine in Black Complètement Red 2023
John Carpenter's Halloween is the reason half of us watch horror movies at all. Fifteen years after he killed his sister as a little boy, Michael Myers escapes and walks back into Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night with a blank white mask and a kitchen knife. Then he starts following a babysitter named Laurie Strode. Carpenter barely shows the violence. Mostly he shows Michael standing perfectly still at the edge of the frame, which is worse. He wrote that piano theme himself, too.
This label looks like an old propaganda poster: a red and yellow sunburst behind a masked figure in black, arms raised, something sharp in one hand and a bottle in the other. Underneath it says "Chérie, ça va trancher...", roughly "Darling, this is going to cut..." Domaine in Black is Lambert Spielmann's young estate in Nothalten, Alsace. Complètement Red is Pinot Noir from sandstone soils, left whole-cluster on its skins for ten days and bottled with no added sulfites. It's bright and mineral rather than heavy, so give it a little chill before you press play.
Shop Domaine in Black Complètement Red 2023 →
6. The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) + Veda Mushroom Liqueur
The Girl with All the Gifts is a zombie movie where the zombies come from a fungus. The best hope for a cure is Melanie, a little girl who is infected but can still think, read and love her teacher. It's smart, sad and far less known than it deserves to be.
So we're pouring mushrooms. Just look at the label: a skull completely overgrown with them, stems snaking out of the eye sockets and through the teeth, a little crown sitting on top. It could be a poster for the movie. Veda Mushroom Liqueur is made at Denning's Point Distillery in Beacon, up the Hudson. Each bottle uses about a third of a pound of shiitake, sweetened with New York honey and maple syrup. It smells like a forest floor and drinks like a savory amaro, with a soft, brothy finish. At 20% alcohol it's gentle enough to sip neat after dinner. Or mix two parts chilled Lambrusco with one part Veda and a couple dashes of bitters.
7. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) + absinthe
Coppola's Dracula has one of the strangest date scenes in movie history. The Count, young and handsome now, finds Mina on the streets of London and takes her for absinthe. The green spirit goes cloudy in the glass while he talks about his lost love, and she has no idea who she's drinking with.
Absinthe is distilled with grand wormwood, green anise and fennel. The US banned it from 1912 until 2007, mostly over rumors that it made people hallucinate. It doesn't; it's just strong. To drink it the old way, pour an ounce into a glass, rest a sugar cube on a slotted spoon over the top, and slowly drip ice-cold water through until the drink turns milky green.
How to host a horror movie wine night
- Start light. Open Poison Ivy or Nuit Blanche with snacks and the family-friendly film.
- Go darker as the night does. Move to The Black, Sang de Corb and Complètement Red for the main feature.
- End with something strange. Veda or absinthe for the last film, when nobody wants to walk home alone.
Food that works with all of it: a cheese board, roasted squash, mushroom anything, and dark chocolate.
Buying for a group? Get 6 bottles and save 5% with code HALFCASE, or 12 bottles and save 10% with code CASE.
Halloween wine FAQ
What wine goes with Halloween candy?
Skin-contact orange wines and light, juicy reds handle candy best. Their acidity cuts through sugar. Save the big tannic reds for savory snacks.
What's the best wine for a horror movie night?
Pick a few bottles that get darker as the night goes on: a crisp white or orange wine to start, a moody red for the main film, and a liqueur or absinthe to finish.
Is natural wine good for Halloween parties?
Yes. Natural wines tend to be lower in alcohol and easy to drink, and their wild labels double as decorations and conversation starters.
