A Beginner’s Guide To Sweet Red Wines
As you start to venture outside the world of the almost universally affordable, judgment-free land of boxed wines and two-buck chucks, you might find yourself worrying that wine just isn’t FOR you.
If you’ve found that the classic wines everyone always suggests just leaves a (literally) bitter taste in your mouth, fear not! Just because you don’t enjoy the dry stuff doesn’t mean you don’t have a refined palette. You might just be calibrated to prefer sweeter wines!
Sweet wines sometimes get a bad wrap because some believe they taste cheaper or aren’t made well. We are here to dash those myths to dust! Wine is for everyone, sweet wines are valid, and I am leading this revolution!
If you think sweet wines are what you’ve been missing all your life, or you’re sympathetic to our cause, join me! Let’s bust these sweet red wine myths and sip onward!
Decoding The Sweet Reds
So you’ve narrowed your wine preferences down to red. Believe it or not, that’s a great place to start.
It’s always a lot less intimidating to just ask someone who knows wine to bring you what you’re asking for, but I, as your Fairy Wine Mother, am here to give you some confidence so you can start venturing out on your own.
All wines contain sugar – “residual sugars” as a matter of fact. The natural sugars in grapes are converted into alcohol during the fermentation process. The longer a wine ferments, the fewer residual sugars are left behind.
So in short, sweet wines are wines that were halted earlier in the fermentation process than dry wines. Sweet wines can reach a super sweet twenty percent of leftover residual sugars in the bottle!
But that’s all just some wine knowledge for you to throw down at your next Girls’ Night. Let’s get into the stuff you can actually use when you’re shopping the labels.
Sweet wines range from Medium Sweet, the lower end of the residual sugars, to Very Sweet, where we’re approaching that twenty percent.
Very Sweet Wines
- Tawny Port
- Ruby Port
- Vin Santo Rosso
Sweet Wines
- Lambrusco
- Rosso Dolce
- Brachetto D’acqui
- Beaujolais Nouveau
Medium Sweet Wines
- Zinfandel
- Garnacha (Grenache)
- Malbec
- Shiraz
When Should I Pull Out A Sweet Red?
Everyone has different tastes in wine and some may cringe at the idea of a sweet wine, but a good combination with wine has been known to change a few minds.
The sweetest reds like Ports may be “syrupy” to some, but pairing them with an indulgent dessert like a rich chocolate cake or cheesecakes complements the sweetness beautifully.
More medium-sweet reds like Zinfandels and Malbec are great for feasts where there’s going to be a lot of meat!
Our single word of caution: keep an eye out for the alcohol content of the fuller-bodied sweet reds. Some can be as high as 15% ABV, and we’ve all been in a situation where we tackled more sweet things than we planned to in a single sitting.
What Sweet Wines Would You Suggest?
There are veteran sommeliers who don’t even know what sweet wines to recommend because they don’t prefer sweeter tastes. I, however, connected with some who do delight in the sweetness, and they recommend the following sweet reds with gusto.
Jam Jar
A sweet red wine from South Africa made with the Shiraz grape. With a 5.7% residual sugar rate, it’s on the dryer side, but with a 13% ABV, it’ll get the party started. Retails for around $10.
Sweet Walter Red
Wildly popular, Sweet Walter is a blend of Concord, Rougeon, and Baco grapes from the Finger Lakes, NY region. The manufacturers at Bully Hill Wines didn’t give us the sugar content, but “it’s sweet. Really sweet.” This sweetie has an 11% ABV and retails at around $10.
Riunite
A semi-sparkling wine from the Emilia Romanga region of northern Italy, made from the Lambrusco grape. This wine has 5% residual sugar (50 g/L), an 8% ABV, and retails for around $6. Riunite has a pedigree as being America’s best-selling import wine in the 1970’s.
So there you have it – some information to take with you wine shopping and some sweeties to keep an eye out for. Whether you’re looking for your wine soulmate or just looking to branch out, check out some sweet red wines!
Sweet Red Wines- FAQ
What kind of wine is sweet red?
Sweet wines are wines that were halted earlier in the fermentation process than dry wines. Sweet wines can reach a super sweet twenty percent of leftover residual sugars in the bottle. But that’s all just some wine knowledge for you to throw down at your next Girls’ Night. Let’s get into the stuff you can actually use when you’re shopping the labels.
Are there any sweet red wines?
The most popular very sweet red wines are Tawny Port, Ruby Port and Vin Santo Rosso. Popular sweet wines are Lambrusco, Rosso Dolce, Brachetto D’acqui and Beaujolais Nouveau. Medium sweet reds that are most popular are Zinfandel, Garnacha, Malbec and Shiraz.
What brands of red wine are sweet?
– Lini 910 Labrusca Lambrusco Rosso
– Medici Ermete Quercioli Reggiano Lambrusco D.O.C. Dolce
– Chiarli Fondatore Lambrusco 2012
– Felsina Vin Santo 2009
– Domaine Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon Sparkling Rose
What red wines are sweet and smooth?
Highly rated sweet reds:
– Low Hanging Fruit Sweet Red
– Oliver Soft Collection Sweet Red
– La Vuelta Malbec
– Robertson Sweet Red
– McManis Merlot
– Saldo Zinfandel by The Prisoner Wine Company
– Liberty Creek Sweet Red
What is the difference between red wine and sweet red wine?
All wines contain sugar – “residual sugars” as a matter of fact. The natural sugars in grapes are converted into alcohol during the fermentation process. The longer a wine ferments, the fewer residual sugars are left behind.
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