Here's a clever idea: online wine videos! It's The Winery Channel, and they have everything from instructional videos that teach you what foods go with what wine to visits to various vineyards and vacation spots.

The site has a sense of humor too. Make sure you watch Rex Havoc (and his horse "Brokeback"), who shows you the best wine bottles to use for shooting practice, and Dave in Los Angeles, who rants about his neighbor Walter, a wine snob. The stuff he says...well, you know people like Walter (and not just when it comes to wine). You'll be quoting a couple of Dave's lines to your friends later this week.

There are many "shows" to watch, including "Hot Legs," "The Wine Bar Show," and "Got Wine?" (the videos can be kinda glitchy - took me a few clicks to get each video working, but it's worth it).

The holidays can get pretty expensive, with gifts, food and entertaining expenses piling on until after the New Year (especially if you want to hit one or two after-Christmas sales), so it is always great to find a way to save some money without loosing out on quality. Food is one area where it is difficult to cut back, since price and quality are often closely linked. Paying more will usually get you better meats, cheeses and chocolates, for example. When it comes to wine, however, price are quality are not necessarily as closely inked - not unless you're talking about $100+ bottles of wine, anyway. Since AOL Food has a much larger staff than we do, they went through many bottles of wine to find five great ones that are $5.99 a bottle or less, perfect for serving with holiday dinners or bringing along as a hostess gift to a party because they are guaranteed to taste good without breaking the bank.

1. Trader Joe's Coastal Cabernet ($4.99)
2. Amaicha Torrontes ($4.99)
3. Banrock Station Shiraz ($5.99)
4. Barefoot California Merlot ($5.99)
5. Barefoot California Chardonnay ($5.99)

Here's a brand of wine that sounds perfect for adding a little extra spirit to your Halloween celebrations. Vampire Wines, produced by Vampire Vineyards, have the ideal look for a spooky gathering with not only an appropriate name, but a classy looking label, as well. The grapes are produced at the Recas Vineyard in Transvylvania (what did you expect - Napa?), which is rumored to be a legendary grape-producing region. The merlot rose is the "lead vampire winemaker's " and the most versatile of the offerings. The reds seem to tend towards fruity flavors that go well with meats, particularly red meats, while both the pinot grigio and chardonnay have citrus overtones and complement lighter dishes.

Even though they sell both red and white, but if you're going to buy a vampire wine, it seems natural to go with a red. After all, would any self-respecting vampire really be caught (un)dead with a glass of chardonnay when he could have a glass of dark red merlot?

You can order it online at the Vampire store.

A younger exposure to wine is likely to foster an increase in appreciation of the beverage, so consumers will be looking not only for more wines, but for better wines. The problem is that you have to start somewhere and it can be difficult to know what you're getting by looking at the bottle. One strategy is to only take recommendations from friends and gradually branch out from there. Another is to extensively research each wine before you buy it, consulting the experts and the internet. If you are at the store and want to buy a bottle at that moment, however, you might face an impressive selection without a clue as to what to buy. Which bottle will you reach for?

An article in the New York Times Magazine reported that the sales of a specific sort of wine have reached over $600 million annually. It’s not burgundy, chardonnay or merlot - not specifically, anyway -  that’s selling, but it just might be the wine that you reach for when confronted with too many same-looking options: wines with animals on their labels.

It might seem like a label design would be an unreliable way to select a wine, but a great logo can help cement a good reputation in the mind of the buyer. And things besides wine are selected on their looks every day: book covers, clothing and potential dates. Why should wines stick to plain labels with scripted fonts when a bold design will jump out and grab a consumer's attention? My only question is why an animal label might attract a buyer more than a flashy, non-animal label, all other things being equal.