Sweet Wines For Beginners

If you're new to wine and have a sweet tooth, you could be wondering if there are sweet wines for beginners? You may also have heard a few negative comments about them, and the experts (mainly men), see them as something for women or people who know nothing about wine. Read on and you'll find there's something just for you.

Vin Santo sweet wine from Tuscany

It's true that many sweet wines are made with things other than grape juice, and it's not a bad idea to keep away from them. There are however others that certainly deserve consideration. Some "experts" even rate wines such as Ice Wine, Rieslings, and Sauternes as high as their dry counterparts. You can read the definition of a sweet wine here.

So what's responsible for the bad reputation? Well, the wines with the bad reputation are generally the cheaper ones. And the bad rap is justified. I'm referring to wines under $10 where sugar and other additives are used to mask the poor qualities of the fruit. If a winemaker makes a mistake, or when the juice is of high volume but low quality, the quickest ways to hide imperfections is to add sugar. Because the sugar’s flavor is so dominant and pleasing to our palate, we don't notice the flaws.

You're going to have to spend a little more if you want quality

The best sweet wines for beginners and for anyone else for that matter, are those where the wine making methods concentrate the natural sugars present in the fruit. This may be because the fruit is allowed to over ripen, it's frozen, or it's been dried. No additional sugar is added to hide something, and the sweet flavor is the natural result of the winemaker’s techniques. These processes require more work and low yields, consequently the price tag is a little higher. However for the most part they're still affordable. As I'm biased the best wines come from Italy and are made from dried grapes. See below.

Suggested sweet wines for beginners

Riesling. Originally from Germany, also found in Austria, Australia,  New Zealand & the US. The wine has a wide stylistic range, from complex, dry to very sweet.

Sauternes. From the Bordeaux region of France. Again there are many styles of this white wine, and they're best served lightly chilled.

Recioto della Valpollicella. Intensely flavored, and made from dried (passito) grapes in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy

Vin Santo. Vin Santo again made from dried grapes. It can vary in sweetness from dry to extremely sweet. The Vin Santo from Monterinaldi estate winery which we can visit on one of my private Tuscany wine tours has won many awards. In my opinion rightfully so. A gorgeous sweetness when it first as it hits the palette, followed by a touch of acidity to keep it from being overpowering. An absolute perfect balance. And to top it all its an all natural product made from dried grapes not sugars. Another bonus is that the wine will keep indefinitely, like a liquor. Take a drink today, and put the cork back on the bottle. It will be fine in a year's time if you can wait that long.