Halloween

The recovery from last night's Secret Souls Walk was a tad harsher than I might have liked, but there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity to shut out the world. The parade of costumes was rather different from last night - and the treats were definitely tamer - but there's not much chance that we'd stop greeting the little devils and princesses at the door. After all, you never know when you might need Harry Potter or Hermione's help in getting tickets to their next blockbuster. I'd have to say that Hermione's kitty, Cruikshanks is certainly growing faster than the other characters. Give it another year and he'll be more the size of Winnie the Pooh.

No martinis tonight - that was a bit too scary of a thought for this boy. So, despite the fact that Mr. D and a couple others came by (since they don't get any kids in their neighbourhood), the best I was up for was adding one more bottle to The List.

631. 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Merlot (South Australia)

When it comes to Australia and Merlot, this household naturally thinks of Merlot Boy himself. But, unlike during the Olympic Games, MB did not make a surprise visit for Halloween. So, alternatively, a fitting replacement for a party and for Merlot has to be Wolf Blass.

With Merlot being perhaps BC's most popular, homegrown red wine, we don't tend to drink a lot of Aussie Merlot. This bottle, however, is certainly representative of the New World, fruit-driven juice that made Down Under wines so popular in our market in the first place. After we'd opened it, I was a bit spooked that we might have already added this wine to The List. Indeed, four or five Wolf Blass wines have previously popped their corks (or screwcaps as the case may be) on our Odyssey, but not the '08 Merlot.

Seeing as how recognizable Wolf Blass is in our market, I'm sure we'll see him and his wines hit The List yet again. Accordingly, I don't think I'll spend any more time going into the myth behind the man this time around.

Besides, Halloween is all about the kids - particularly the headless and ghoulish ones. When they're as amusing as that, there's an extra bag of cheesies at our place.