So maybe you bought far too many goodies for the little visiting goblins and as in our home every year, you are forced to eat them yourselves. Possibly the “little team” collected more than they could consume and you just have to help. Here are some wine-matching suggestions.

Candied corn always presents a challenge, but I would suggest our Monchhof Slate Spatlese Riesling 2008 from the Mosel region of Germany.

Wines like this age beautifully and this has years left because of the ageing capability of Riesling and the residual sugar content. Peach, nectarine and slate for $27.50.

Two weeks ago I found myself sitting at the dinner table with a gentleman from one of the great wine estates of Germany and I asked him if it was true that Spatlese was “invented” there on his 12th century property, to which he replied in the positive.

The story goes, that in 1775, a messenger from the Archduke, who was sent each year to tell the monks when to pick the grapes, tarried a few weeks on his journey as he had met a young lady, and so the grapes were picked late (Spatlese means late-picked). A new, complex, slightly sweet wine from very ripe fruit was discovered.

Big House Cardinal Zin 2012 “Beastly Old Vines” would be most appropriate with dark chocolate. This Californian staple has intense flavours of blackberry mingling with soft, creamy touches of oak, vanilla and dry herbs.

It is full on the palate, but not heavy. The winery name comes from the fact that it is only “an ankle iron’s toss” from Soledad State Correctional Facility, aka “The Big House”, “The Clink” or “The Slammer”. $15.55.

One mention of pumpkin seeds and I am sure that you are all thinking Chardonnay, and how could we pick better on this day than Ghost Pines Chardonnay 2013? This Chardonnay possesses expressive fruit-forward characteristics, as the winemaker has carefully selected fruit from three areas so very suitable for this grape; Sonoma, Monterey and Napa counties.

Like many of the new generation of wines from California, it is restrained and refined with a good balance of acidity and fruit. We think it a very good value for $19.90.

The second bite of rich milk chocolate is never as good as the first as the taste buds get clogged with sweet, rich flavours and oils (the reason why we do not start a meal with dessert).

The solution is to drink Champagne, as the acidity and millions of tiny scrubbing bubbles cleanse the palate like nothing else. Champagne is equally effective if you have just taken a mouthful of Madras curry or very spicy Thai or Indonesian food. Most of us try to stop the pain with water or bread but neither work anywhere as well as good old bubbly.

If you have not tried our Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve Non Vintage Champagne, you have missed one of the very best. Founded by Francois Billecart and his wife Elizabeth Salmon in 1818 it is one of the last family-owned Champagne firms today, as most are now part of large corporations.

Publications as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and the British Decanter magazine have called this the best of all the non-vintage Champagnes and when you taste ripe peach, apricot and a touch of citrus fruit, you will understand why. I am imagining biting into a piece of Godiva or Guylian, having a sip of Billecart Salmon and then enjoying the second bite every bit as much as the first. This Champagne sells for $55.95.

This column is a paid-for advertorial for Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or 295-0176. Burrows Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton (Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available online at www.wineonline.bm.