VINO AND A SCARY MOVIE: Just about everyone who celebrates Halloween approaches the occasion in a different way. Some revelers are all about the over-the-top parades, and the chance to go for the evening's top prize. Others like to visit a haunted house, the kind that comes complete with creepy monsters lurking in the passageways. And for some spooky seekers? It's all about a dinner filled with dastardly delights, from hot dogs shaped like bugs to a blood-red punch. But if you're the sort who prefers a perfect pinot, a vintage fright movie on TV, and a lights-out kind of night, there is a pre-Halloween outing that might suit your not-so-macabre leanings. The place is Temecula Valley, and the "pre-Halloween" part signifies the weekend ahead of Oct. 31, when many of the spooky doings'll be afoot. Look to...
EUROPA VILLAGE, which is hosting a Fright Night Costume Party with live tunes and a visit from the Cousins Maine Lobster Truck. That's on Friday, Oct. 28, so put together your most elegant vampire get-up and get to the Europe-like property, one that feels like it could be in some Hollywood movie of olde. Book a spot at Mount Palomar Winery on Sunday, Oct. 30 and paint a flower skull in honor of Dia de los Muertos (and sip some excellent Palomar libations). And is that a Haunted Wine Tour at South Coast Winery? Indeed it is, eek seekers. The atmospheric wander-arounds are on the schedule from Oct. 28 through 31. Will there be eats and beverages to stoke the appetite? Plan on it. Is your favorite winery doing something slightly dastardly and in the Halloween swing of things? Give them a jingle and see if the ghosts and ghoulies'll be out in the caves and among the casks.
