Can anyone recommend a good sweet red wine?

Question

There are a few different ones that I drink, but I'd like to try something new. I'd prefer if it were $20 or less a bottle. Any help?

Answer 1

The bad news is that a sweet red table wine is a rare thing. Most people find that dry (unsweet) wines go much better with food than sweet ones do, and just about everyone who drinks wine regularly has acquired a taste for the dry kind.

You do have some options, though [and sorry if I'm repeating any that you already drink]:

The first I would recommend is White Zinfandel or White Merlot. More pink than red, but they are sweet and can be great summer sipping wines -- the colder, the better!

If you want a really inexpensive slightly carbonated wine go to the store and pick up either the Cella or Riunite Lambrusca's. These can be found for under four dollars a bottle on sale, and they're darn tasty. They have just the slightest bit of natural carbonation so they're kind of fun to drink. They come out of Italy.

Another option is to find one of the red wines that has added fruit flavors. I think Wild Vines makes a Blackberry Merlot, and I used to love this stuff.

As someone else mentioned, there's a Greek red called "Mavrodaphne," and it generally sells for about $5 to $6. You might ask a local wine shop about it.

The next best sources are the red Dessert and Late Harvest wines. Dessert wines can be a more concentrated wine by it's process or because it's a Late Harvest wine. Late Harvest means just that, the wine growers leave the grapes on the vines until almost the end of the harvest time so the individual grapes can develop more sugar. One to try is the Late Harvest Pinot Noir from Montinore Vineyard, it's really yummy. However, dessert and late harvest wines require more work and more grapes for a lessor quantity of wine so they are much more expensive. A standard 750ml bottle of Pinot Noir can be had for around twelve dollars. The Montinore LHPN is around fifteen dollars for a 500ml bottle.

Port wines can be another source of sweet reds, but personally, I find them to be too sweet. I have a good friend who loves them, and he's not alone. Prices vary.

Finally, if you want a really sweet red wine, and I do mean sweet, you might consider the Honeywood Winery Concord Grape, sweet red wine. The Concord grape, yes the jelly grape, is a native American grape that most wine makers and drinkers turn their noses up at because it doesn't make a good dry wine and because it's not French. The snob factor really comes into play here and I doubt that you can find it in most wine shops.

In all seriousness, though, if you're interested in consuming red wine with meals as a matter of course, it would pay for you to develop a taste for drier wines. I'd suggest starting with a light, fruity red, such as any of the various Beaujolais from France, the "Gamay Beaujolais" equivalent from California (The Beringer "Nouveau" Gamay Beaujolais is an excellent one), or a good red Zinfandel -- the Rosenblum and Rabbit Ridge wineries in California make some very good ones that aren't too pricey. Or even Rancho Zabaco.

Try one of these, don't drink it by itself but sip it with the meal (roast chicken would work fine, or steaks or lamb if you're a red-meat eater), and I think you'll begin to see that the marriage of good food with a quality dry red wine is a match made in heaven.

Answer 2

Sweet Table Wine

Answer 3

Very few red a wines are made to be sweet.

You won't find a Shiraz (as others have suggested) sweet unless it is one of the very few late harvest dessert wines.

Ports are red and sweet, but they are fortified and this high in alcohol

One sweet red wine that is very reasonably priced is 'Mavrodaphne' from Greece. Deliciously sweet table wine.

Answer 4

The best sweet wine is: PORT

I like all by Sandleman

its a sipping wine, small glass usually after dinner.

Answer 5

Manishewitz Concord Grape- think cough syrup with more alcohol

Answer 6

if you have never heard of this wine, google it...it will be worth your while! google: vinkolet winery. lists and defines all there wines. they have the sweetest, tastiest wine i have ever had. sells about 12.00 a bottle

Answer 7

try the French Burgundy

Answer 8

White merlot

Shiaz is sweeter than merlot, but it is still quite dry.

Answer 9

I don't know what it costs, but I used to love Riunite Lambrusco.

Answer 10

Try berry sangia. Now thats really good :)