Heading into the fall, we also head into the holiday party season! Halloween, Thanksgiving and December celebrations all require you to host your friends and family and if you are an avid wine drinker, you are headed toward an expensive bar bill. Naturally one of the most common questions I receive is how to host a party without breaking the bank. In other words, how do I serve cheap wine and not embarrass myself? First thing is, don’t be shy about being on a budget! If you drink a lot of wine or host a lot of get-togethers, it adds up fast. The trick to not going broke is to buy the best wine for the price bracket. How does one do that? Remember to always buy in bulk, 6 or 12 bottles get you added discounts. If shopping online, make sure to check for free shipping options and end of lot sales (one of my favorite ways to shop on Wine.com for example). If shopping in a grocery store, look at the sale tags and purchase wines that have a $5 or more (sometimes even over $10!) discount from the regular shelf price, they use this strategy to get people engaged with a product and then increase the price over time after you have attached to it. Another key trick is to do some research and look up winners on some of the Wine Competition sites you respect. You can actually look up winners by grape and format. Now, I am about to say something that freaks some people out, but the format you should be looking up is BOXED WINE. Cue shrieks of horror. Yes, I said it, shop boxed wine for big parties. There are actually some decent, and in specialty shops, great options out there these days and they are a bargain! Is she actually suggesting I set a box out for my wino friends?!? No, no, I am suggesting that you disguise it! Pour the boxed wine into charming carafes or even into a decanter (a little bit of a mean trick to the wine elite at your shin-dig that will inevitably think that it is the special older bottle you’ve been promising to open one day. Maybe give them a heads up. You then set out the plastic cocktail cups, you know the ones that open wide making all aromas and nuances impossible to trace. People at parties rarely are paying that close attention to the wine in the cup. The room is loud, the food is aromatic and the merriment is palpable, all these things distract your sense of taste. Your guests want something tasty, that's it. Disclosure here, this is for a BIG party with many levels of wine drinkers, not a wine tasting get together! Also set out the nicer bottles of “sale” wines you collected, it gives people options, but you watch, people will be plenty happy with the wine in the carafe. Another great way to stretch the wine buck is to make a sangria. No this is not sacrilege, well it would be if it was a vintage champagne or a collector’s special bottle, but with cheaper wine, you are absolutely ok doing this. My favorite is to take one liter of cheap white wine, one bottle of cheap sparkling wine, one liter of bubbly water and add sliced nectarines, and strawberries to it. Serve with ice. For red wine, I do the exact same recipe substituting red wine for the liter of white and substituting the fruit choices to be blueberries and raspberries. If you really want to get the party started, add 2 cups of vodka to the mix. The final tip is to focus on the FUN! Decorating with a theme not only makes your party a lot more enjoyable, it also helps mask your cheap wine more enjoyable. Halloween is all about red wine. It is the easy go to “blood” gimmick and served in IV bags (yes, this is a thing and yes people freaking love them! Shop on Amazon) is hilarious. Then there is white wine with green food coloring in a large punch bowl sitting on dry ice, looks like witches potion, and the kid inside every adult totally loves this classic, yet alcoholic, trick. There are also tons of cool ice molds out there! If you go on Pinterest you can spend hours looking at clever things to add to your ice cube trays or order the specialty forms that allow you to make absolutely any shape you can think of. Ice chills and dilutes wine which, when done in a fun way, masks your cheap wine too. Thanksgiving and the December holidays beg for bubbles! Cheap bubbly with a little juice or edible glitter takes the focus off the wine itself and is festive. As weather gets colder there is mulled wine as an option, but also the simplicity of the carafe wins again! My point in sharing these tips is to allow you to be more playful with wine. People have gotten far too uptight about wine losing the perspective to have fun with it. You know that saying ‘there is a wine for every occasion'. Well the cheap wine has its place too! So keep collecting those magical bottles and bring them out for the more intimate dinners with family and friends, the meaningful celebrations, and those lavish nights where you are alone with your feet up and decide you deserve a reward.