5 Best Red Wines for Beginners | Wine Folly

So you've decided you want to get a little bit more serious about red wine, but where do you start and what wines should you try? Okay, so I made a short list of grape varieties that I think are perfect for people who are just getting into wine. The reason is they have focused fruit flavors which will help train your palate and you'll get to know which wines and styles that you like and don't like. And the best part, you don't have to spend a lot of money to find a great bottle. So let's go buy some wine. You can see going to a wine store in one of two ways, as a treasure trove of adventure or an island of intimidation. When you see it as a treasure trove, it looks like an adventure of discoveries to be found. And we found some incredible bottles today. I think we did pretty good. Now these wines range from about $10 a bottle to $45 a bottle and I'll show you which ones which at the end. But each of these wines will teach you something different about wine and something different about your own sense of taste. So stay tuned for all the finer details. Let's get tasting. Syrah originates from France but today it grows all over the world and that's a benefit because you'll find it tastes different based on which place it comes from. This wine comes from South Australia and I picked it because it's one of the warmest climates for growing this grape and that means the fruit flavors are going to be focused, big and right up front. And that's exactly what I promised you in the beginning. Let's see if this wine holds up. Taking a look at the color, wow! That is a deep purple color and that means we have a lot of anthocyanin, those are the color producing pigments, coming through in the grape varieties that are going into this glass of wine right here. So what do you smell? When you smell a wine, take a moment to see if you can find at least five flavors. If you can find less, it's not a very complex wine. And if you can find way more, it's probably pretty seriously complex. Let's give this a sniff. I smell blackberry, plum, chocolate sauce, a little bit of violet and almost like a blueberry compote. The fruit flavors are bombastic and huge. This is definitely what I was hoping to get when I picked out this wine. Another reason I love Syrah so much for beginners is for what you get on the palette. You get an explosion of flavor up front and then it smooths on out in the finish. This wine pretty much nails it for me in terms of having exactly what I was hoping to get for a perfect beginner Syrah wine. Now, if you tend to like wines that are a little bit more floral and complex and with more herbal notes, you're probably not going to like a wine from South Australia. You might try to find something from a cooler climate like in France. However, if you think that this sounds like you, I would highly recommend looking for Syrahs from warmer climates like Australia or South Africa or California. These are great places to find this kind of fruity forward flavored wine. Okay, so do we think this is the most expensive wine? Here are your clues. The producer is relatively famous. Yolamba is definitely a producer to know. The region where this wine comes is a large region called South Australia and it's not a focused area. On this wine, I do get a lot of pure fruit flavors but I don't get too much mention of oak. Those are your clues. So how much do you think this wine cost? And now we have America's sweetheart grape, Zinfandel. Back in the late 1800s, Zinfandel was actually one of America's favorite grapes and it was planted throughout California. It wasn't until later in the 1990s when Dr. Carol Barrett proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Zinfandel isn't actually American at all. It's an immigrant like the rest of us and this one comes from Croatia. It makes an amazing beginner wine and that's because it has a rich full body and it's one of the best valued wine varieties you can find out there. Taking a look at the color, wow, this looks to be again a medium to pale ruby color. Not too much of interest there but if you give the glass a swirl and look at the tears that form on the side of the glass, you can see a lot of them and that's just an indication of how much evaporation is happening from the alcohol, the high level of alcohol in this wine. Whoa, complex. I get baked strawberry, a little caramelized peach, cinnamon spice, a touch of baking spices, almost like a dry clay dust note and something kind of like blackberry strudel. On the palate, Zinfandel hits you with a zing. One thing of note in high quality Zinfandel is the higher levels of tannin in this wine. Now when you taste tannin, it'll hit your palate right in the center and you will feel it when you touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth. It will feel like this gripping astringent sensation. Now things that make tannin taste less intense include alcohol level, higher acidity and those can help and if you like to pair red wines with food, that will help as well. The tannins scrape off fats in the foods that you eat which is one of the reasons why red wines pair so well with high fat meats. All right it's time for some clues. Now this wine right here, Brown Estate, is a single estate wine and it comes from a very specific region, Napa Valley and in fact it's growing on their own private estate and if you look at the bottle you'll see it has been unfiltered by the fact that there's potassium butartrate crystals on the top of the cork there. So how much do you think this bottle cost? Grenache or shall we say garnacha because as it's been determined the origin place of this grape variety is the Iberian Peninsula and most likely in northeastern Spain and that's exactly where this wine is from. Most people haven't actually heard of garnacha and that's because it tends to play a major role as a blending grape in some famous wines such as your but I tend to find this grape stands on its own as you will soon find out and it's for those people who love a super fruity upfront wine but are looking for something a bit different in the palate. Let's see how this wine does. Taking a look at the color, wow, I would say medium ruby but this might be a pale ruby color because I can see my hands through it. That tells us that grenache does not have as much anthocyanin as say Syrah but that might not be what we love about this wine. Let's give it a sniff. Whoa, I smell raspberries, strawberries, a little ruby red grapefruit, this floral note almost like gardenia and then a whiff of dust of some kind, maybe a rock dust. Let's give it a taste. The palate of garnacha is where this wine really shines. It hits you up front, it sneaks along and then it goes pow in the mid palate with this massive juicy flavor that continues and it continues and it continues into the finish and long after you've swallowed. Because this wine has higher alcohol, you will tend to feel it in the back of your throat and it also is one of those grapes that performs exceptionally well in warm climates. You'll find it in southern France and in Spain, in parts of California and Australia and that's because we have enough sunshine and heat to get this wine ripe exactly where it needs to be. So, do you think you know how much this wine is? Let's give you some clues. First of all, the wine itself, it's not from a single estate from what I can tell. It's from someone's selection of wines. It also has no true designation of origin or estate vineyard associated with it. It just says northeastern Spain. Now, as far as the taste and quality, I thought it was quite good but I didn't get a sense of any oak used in this wine. So, we're not spending any extra money on oak aging. Those are your clues. So, how much do you think this wine cost me? This next wine you're going to either love or you're going to hate and even if you hate it, you're going to learn something valuable about what kind of wines you should buy and what kind of quality level you should be looking for in those wines in order to get what you want. Carmoniere. This grape grows almost exclusively in Chile but it's originally from Bordeaux. Now, we thought it was Merlot for almost until 1995 when we discovered through DNA analysis that it's actually a very rare Bordeaux grape called Carmoniere. It was one of the grapes that was lost during a massive devastating thing to the wine industry and that was Phylloxera, a root louse, went and attacked all these vineyards throughout all of Europe and the United States in the late 1800s and to this day there still is no cure for Phylloxera. Of course, we've developed some workarounds but you get the idea. Taking a look at this wine, wow, that looks to be a deep almost ruby purple color that shows us there's a lot of extraction coming through in this grape variety. Let's give it a sniff. Crazy, right? It smells like grilled shishito peppers or red pepper flakes with some rich cherry sauce and maybe some freshly wetted concrete, you know, like after a light summer rain and then I get this subtle note of ripe saucy plums. Let's give it a Wow, is that not so balanced from the start all the way to the finish? We have this profile that grows and changes and then ends in this smooth magical way. This is a Bordeaux variety and this is what Bordeaux varieties are famous for and you might not have heard of Carmoniere but you've definitely heard of the other grapes Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec. This green fruit characteristics, whether it's bell pepper, mint, or cocoa powder, depending on what you buy and the quality level, you're gonna get that style and Carmoniere just happens to be the one with the most bombastic green fruit you will ever taste and that's why it's such a great wine to try. So let's tally this wine up and I'll give you some clues and you can make a guess as to how much you think this bottle cost me. This producer Calcu is a single estate producer. They come from the region of Chile which is known as a value region but they're from a single estate in a single wine region called Cochagua. Now Cochagua valley in Chile is one of the most important regions for producing Bordeaux blends and Bordeaux grape varieties like this Carmoniere wine. This wine is also called Gran Reserva and now that doesn't necessarily mean it has a quality level, it is sort of an indication that this producer is saying this is one of their serious wines. So with those clues out there in the world, how much do you think this bottle cost me? Now it's very hard for me to put this as a best beginner wine because Pinot Noir is perhaps the most expensive variety you can buy. The prices can get out of hand. However, as a smart shopper you can find good stuff and because Pinot Noir grows all over the world in multiple different climates, you can also hone in on the style that you like. This wine is very unlike the other wines that we've tried. It's not about being the biggest brashest wine on the block. It has something else to offer. So let's find out. Taking a look at the color, wow would you look at that. That isn't a bold color at all. It is a pale maybe ruby garnet, probably garnet color. I can see all the way through this wine. From that we can tell that this grape variety has very thin skins which do not have that much anthocyanin in them, which is interesting because this is considered to be one of the finest most age-worthy wines. So it's interesting to see that color doesn't necessarily indicate quality. On the nose, huh all right. I smell sweet strawberries, milk chocolate, a cheery hearing liqueur, a touch of roses, and then some allspice and vanilla notes. And you know what that means? Oak aging. On the palate, this wine isn't big. It's delicate and smooth. It's almost like strawberries and cream with this smooth creamy finish and not very high tannins. In fact, they're pretty low. This is one of those wines for those of you who don't really want a bombastic red wine. They want something fruity, but they want something a little bit more subtle. That's what Pinot Noir is all about. In fact, the thing that people love the most with Pinot Noir is just smelling it in the glass because it changes from the moment you open the bottle till when you finish it. Now just like with Syrah, it matters what climate the grapes grow in. This wine comes from California, which is a bit of a warmer climate, which means we're going to get lots of bold fruit flavors up front. But if you're looking for more savory notes, you can look to cooler climates like in France or in Germany to go and find those more earthy notes in this wine. So let's dial in this wine and give you some clues so you can guess how much it cost me. First of all, this is an estate producer. So this wine was made with grapes from the property of the producer. It's from Anderson Valley, which is in Mendocino, which is a lesser known wine region in California. This wine definitely had a bit of oak aging. I could taste it in the flavor of the wine and the smells of allspice and vanilla. So what do you think this wine cost me? Okay, so do you have your guesses ready? Do you know which wine cost me around $10 and which wine cost me $45? Let's do the big reveal. Ta-da! Honestly, each one of these wines punches in way above their weight class. Each one was delicious for a unique and different region and had focused fruit flavors that are so helpful when you're just getting into wine. Plus, the prices of these wines is outstanding. Honestly, even this wine at $45 tastes like something that would cost $150 to $200 if it happened to be a different grape variety. So don't be afraid when you're getting into wine and lean into those alternative grape varieties or those alternative wine regions to find exceptional value and to have fun. I hope you enjoyed this segment and it encourages you to try some new wines. If you'd to learn more about wine, subscribe. It's the easiest thing you can do and it'll tell me that I'm on to the right track. 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