The Enchanted Vinous Collective: Spooky Wines and Halloween Wisdom With Jorge Garcia and Kevin Keaveney

In Part I of the Enchanted Vinous Collective, I recommended a few bargain spooky wines to bring to your Halloween party that will simultaneously keep you in theme and a few extra dollars in your pocket. Win-Win. On certain occasions, however, you may require a high quality vino for your All Hallows’ Eve exploits. Perhaps you are attending a party hosted by your sommelier and oenophilic friend. In that case, a bargain wine just won’t impress. Or perhaps you prefer to indulge at home with a glass of wine and your favorite cinematic Halloween horror. We have you covered.

To inject qualified expertise into the Halloween dialogue, I sit down with Kevin Keaveney and Jorge Garcia (LOST, Hawaii Five-O), two consummate Halloween super fans and masterminds behind Skeleton Key Hawaii’s unparalleled haunt experience, Mummy: Curse of the Crypt. We sample a few spooky wines from the top shelf while discussing Halloween movies, music and events that are certain satisfy your ghoulish proclivities. Need some inspiration and recommendations for all things Halloween? We have it.

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The Enchanted Vinous Collective: Spooky Wines for Your Halloween Palooza

October is here. Let the Halloween excitement commence. It is finally time to adorn your long-anticipated, carefully-crafted costume for this year’s epic All Hallow's Eve Extravaganza. To accompany your glorious attire, some spooky skeleton cake pops and a bottle of wine should be a sufficient entry fee. So, what wine befits such an occasion?

This is not the night for serious wines. Proof is in the mirror: you are presently stuffed with pillows and outfitted in an uncomfortable body suit in vain attempt to impersonate everyone’s favorite Star Wars galactic gangster and crime lord, Jabba Desilijic Tiure aka Jabba the Hutt. You look sufficiently nonsensical; don’t confuse things further by toting a 2010 Cos d’Estournel.

Instead, go spooky or go home. In this post, I offer a few easy tips and recommendations for procuring the perfect vinous beverage for this year’s Allhallowe'en Palooza. Let's get creepy ...

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Cork vs. Screw Cap: Uncorking Conventional Wine Bottle Closure Lore

Let us muse, for a moment, on the issue of bottle closure methods, a debate that has gained momentum in recent years. Which is superior: the time-tested, almighty cork, or the upstart, convenient screw cap?

The two camps are entrenched. Traditionalists claim that only cork allows wine to age gracefully. Those hipster modernists, on the other hand, insist that screw caps prevent excess oxidation and cork taint, while affording easy opening. Get drinking, 10 seconds faster.

Who is correct… or is there even a “correct”? Let’s find out ...

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Reflexiones por el Cristal: An Ode to Spanish Wine and Cheese

This week on the blog, an Ode to Spanish Wine and Cheese.

Wine and cheese, the Spaniard's way

Two more formidable companions?

I could not say
 

Spanish affinage and phenolics pair with precision

Refreshingly devoid of all

Antagonizing French derision
 

With a diverse medley of type and taste

Join the vinous jubilation, with haste!


For this week’s musings, a humble tribute

To España - ¡salud!

Okay, that was painful. I absolutely loathe poetry. Enough vexing shenanigans; on with the post.

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The Vinous-Maritime Equation: Tips for Pairing Wine and Seafood

The azure blue waters of the Pacific, calming breezes and slack key music, and a sunset dinner complete with the day's fresh catch and a glass of wine to pair. But what fish? And what wine? These answers can be surprisingly elusive.

With an abundance of fresh seafood in the Pacific waters surrounding the islands, Hawaii’s culinary traditions have naturally focused on the generous assortment of the region's oceanic offerings. Quintessential Hawaiian dishes, such as grilled tako (octopus), poke, garlic or coconut shrimp, lomi Salmon, and steamed fish are common at every family potluck and beach picnic. With such a diversity of textures and flavors, wine pairings can be correspondingly diverse. Finding the right match is not always an elementary task.

This month’s Veritas Wine Club, led by Tiffany, our spirited and capable sommelier, sought to provide a few basic wine and seafood pairing tips, utilizing items easily found at any local market.  

To stay on theme, I offer a few wine and seafood pairing tips of my own before we turn to this month’s lineup and find out what the Tchin Tchin gang brought to the table. So climb aboard, we'll search for pairings on every shore.

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Old World vs New World: The Vinous Deductive Challenge, Revisited

Last week, I provided a rudimentary Guide to Blind Wine Tasting. Taste, hypothesize, repeat. This newfound knowledge was immediately put to the test in a blind wine tasting event for the Friends of Italy Society of Hawaii. Italians unrelentingly boast of their wines as unsurpassed anywhere in the world. They are confident, but are they correct? Time to determine whether they can blindly discern the difference in a crowded and diverse lineup. Challenge presented ...

The event commenced with a few elementary tasting tips, followed by a blind tasting of six wines - three Old World Italian and three New World. Those New World newbies couldn’t possibly keep pace with the refined, elegant wines of Italy. Could they? The patrons, as laudable arbitrators, held the final verdict. Would their vinous paesani blindly prevail?

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