Not everyone grows up drinking wine and for beginners it can sometimes be hard to know where to start. For red wines, you’re best off with something that’s easy to drink and lower in tannins, like a Pinot Noir. Tannins are what make your mouth pucker when you drink wine. Pinot Noir is one of the lightest red wines available and you can have it on its own or pair it with all types of foods, so it’s a great wine to start with. Pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir from New Zealand or California for $14+. Beginners may also want to try a Merlot which has softer tannins and is easier to drink compared to other full-bodied reds. Merlot goes with heartier meals like steak or lamb chops. You can get a bottle of Merlot from Chile or the US for $12+.
When it comes to white wines, we’d recommend starting with a Sauvignon Blanc, which will have citrus notes and good acidity, making it taste fresh and bright. You might also like a lightly oaked or unoaked Chardonnay. Just be sure to choose a wine in the $12-18 price range. If you go with a less expensive white, chances are it will be bulk-produced. The wine could be sweet and may be lacking in the distinctive flavors you should be tasting given the grape varietal it was made with.
How to taste wine
When you’re a beginner, it’s easy to feel intimidated by the whole process of tasting a wine when it’s poured in a restaurant setting. Start by looking at the color of the wine then gently swirling your glass before you raise it to your nose. Think about the aromas you’re picking up on.
Next, take a sip and let the wine sit on your tongue for 2-3 seconds before swallowing. You usually need to taste a wine two to three times before you can fully experience its flavors. A wine that isn’t okay is referred to as “corked” and will have off odors, like wet cardboard. You’ll typically know right away if the wine is corked or if it’s fine for the waiter to go ahead and pour.
If you’re opening wines at home and want to practice the tasting process, never pour the glass more than half full. This is because you need to be able to swirl without spilling wine everywhere and you want some empty space so the glass can correctly funnel the aromas to your nose.
Don’t forget to leave yourself some tasting notes when you open a new wine. Quite often the bottle label will explain which grapes are used and will give you some ideas on what fruit to look for.
Developing your palette
The more you drink wine and the more wine you try, the more your palette will adjust and grow so you’re able to recognize more nuances in flavor, texture and body when it comes to the wines you’re drinking. You’ll also start to develop some preferences. We’re all different so there’s no one best red or white wine. Explore what’s available to you and in your budget and if you don’t enjoy a wine, steer clear in the future. Also, consider if you’re drinking the wine on its own or having it with food it can change the taste.
Other good wines for beginners
You might want to choose a wine based on the season or what you’re pairing it with for dinner. We tend to drink lighter wines and more white and rosé when it’s summer. Wines that are fuller-bodied and heavier are something you start to drink more of in the autumn and winter.
White wines
- Gavi di Gavi. Similar to Sauvignon Blanc, a Gavi di Gavi has a lot of up front citrus flavors, in particular, lemon. It’s a crisp white wine with good acidity that goes well with most foods, including salads and appetizers (but you can also drink it on its own). We recommend Gavi for beginners because it’s usually unoaked and won’t overpower your palette. Most Gavi wines are also produced to a fairly high standard so you won’t run into low quality bottles. Expect to pay between $15 and $20 for Gavi di Gavi wines.
- Riesling. Despite what you may have heard, Resling is not just a sweet wine. The reason people think it’s sweet is because Germany used to produce a sweet style that dominated the market for years. However, since the early 2000s a new generation of winemakers has come in and they’re making significantly drier wines. When a wine is dry it means it doesn’t have a high residual sugar content. If you’re buying a German Riesling, look for a wine in the $12-20 range and make sure it says Trocken (which means dry) on the label. You can also pick up a dry Riesling from Australia for $25+. Riesling is a high acidity wine with citrus, green apple and pear notes. It’s low in alcohol and goes well with spicy food, including Asian noodle dishes.
Red wines
- Côtes du Rhône. A Côtes du Rhône is a wine from the south of France that’s a perfect option for beginners who want to start learning about French wines. No matter who the producer is, the wine will be fruity and in an easy drinking style. It’s also a great complement to most meals because it can have some spice to it. An average Côtes du Rhône will cost you $12-15 but if you want to try a more complex wine to enjoy with a holiday meal, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, look for a bottle in the $18-25 price range (they make delicious Côtes du Rhône whites too). Note, Côtes du Rhône reds are made with a blend of grapes including Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah and can be a little higher in alcohol.
- Chianti. If you like Italian food and you want an easy to drink glass of red wine to go with your meal, order a Chianti. It’s a light to medium bodied wine from Italy made with the Sangiovese grape and you’ll find it in most stores and on many restaurant wine lists. Beginners will like this wine because it tends to be made in a simple and straightforward style. It has a lot of cherry and plum flavors and it’s not too complex or tannic. You can pick up a Chianti DOC or Chianti Classico for $12-18. The best quality level of this wine is in the $25+ price range and is called Chianti Classico Riserva. It’s a nice option for beginners to try for a special dinner or anniversary. Learn more about Italian red wines in this article.
More about Pinot Noir
If you liked your first Pinot Noir and you want to try more of this wine, they make excellent Pinot Noirs in New Zealand, the United States, including Oregon and California, and more recently, in Germany. This is a grape that needs to be grown in cooler regions. It tends to be more expensive than other varieties because it’s harder to grow and has lower yields. If you’d like to try a French bottle, most wine experts agree the best Pinot Noirs in the world come from Burgundy, France. Pinot Noir Bourgognes can start at $30+, but prices go up to $1000+ for specific vineyards and producers from the region. In France they use the name of the region, not the grapes, to name the wine. You can assume a red wine labeled Burgundy is always going to be 100% Pinot Noir.
Should beginners try Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel?
You’ve probably heard of Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s the most popular red wine in the United States and it goes well with red meat, especially steak. The reason we don’t recommend it for beginners is most Cabernet is quite complex and made in a bigger style that can overwhelm the palette. If you do decide to get a bottle, go for a wine from California for $20-25. Red Zinfandel is another varietal you may have heard of. Zinfandel is a full-bodied wine that’s high in alcohol, with concentrated and rich fruit flavors. Zinfandel can also have a touch of residual sugar which some people perceive as sweet. We don’t recommend Zinfandel for beginners as it can be too much to start with.
Wine Tip: What are red blends? Wines that contain different red grapes are often referred to as blends. They can be anything from Merlot to Petite Sirah or Zinfandel. Beginners should be aware that some inexpensive blended wines tend to be rich, high in alcohol, fruit bombs which can have a lot of sugar. They may range from sweet to dry but the less you pay, the more sweet the wine will be.
Fun fact: Most wines from Bordeaux are actually blends of Merlot, Cab and Cab Franc. You tend to find more Merlot based blends, which are better for beginners, in wines from the right bank.
More about Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc is a good wine for beginners because it’s mostly aged in stainless steel, which means you’ll taste more of the primary fruit flavors in the grape. You can get Sauvignon Blanc from the US, South America, South Africa, Italy, France, where it originated in the Loire region, and New Zealand. However, Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand, in particular, the Marlborough region, tend to be some of the most popular today. They’re often tropical fruit and gooseberry driven wines that are on the bolder end of the Sauvignon Blanc spectrum. People either love them or find they’re too much. If you fall in the latter category, try drinking the wine young, in the first 1-2 years after release. You might also prefer a slightly more expensive Sauvignon Blanc in a different style. Look for a bottle of Sancerre from France which will have lemon and citrus notes, good acidity and minerality. Sancerre starts at $35+.
The best Chardonnay for beginners
People can have strong feelings about Chardonnay. This is because there’s a particular style where the wine goes through a secondary process called malolactic fermentation, which makes it taste big, rich and buttery. This, combined with extensive aging in oak can really turn some people off. If this is you, don’t give up on Chardonnay just yet. Try an unoaked or lightly oaked wine from California which should cost around $15 (more expensive Chardonnay will likely be in the heavier style). A beginner might also enjoy an unoaked wine from France which will give more primary fruit notes and a cleaner overall drinking experience. We’d recommend a bottle of Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay for $25+ to start with.
Is Pinot Grigio a good wine to try?
Pinot Grigio is a popular Italian white wine that beginners are often offered. This is because it has an easy drinking reputation, is often made in a light style, and comes with a fairly low price tag. The main issue with this wine is the really inexpensive ones aren’t very good. They can be bland and won’t teach you much about the grape varietal. Instead, look for a Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige or Friuli regions of Italy. If it says Delle Venezia on the bottle, this kind will also work. These wines should be in the $15-30 price range.
Best sparkling wine: Prosecco vs Cava
Prosecco and Cava are both excellent sparkling wines for beginners to start with. They cost far less than Champagne and they’re easier to drink. Of the two, we’d recommend tasting Prosecco from Italy first. It’s made in a different way than Cava using larger vats of still wine where the carbonation is then infused. Proseccos tend to be slightly less dry than Cava (though they aren’t sweet) and more accessible. Cava is a sparkling wine made in the same way as they make Champagne, using different grape varieties.
7 Tips for beginner wine drinkers
- Take part in a wine tasting. It’s a great introduction to wine and the best part is you’ll have an expert there to guide you. Tell them which wines you’ve tried before and what you enjoy and then let them decide what to have you taste. Sign up for a wine tasting dinner as well where they’ll go over wine food pairings you might enjoy.
- Shop at a store that has a good wine selection. It’s more likely they’ll have salespeople who know about wine and can help guide you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Wine can be confusing, especially if you’re choosing bottles from particular countries where the wines aren’t named after the grape varietal they’re made with (this is the case for France and sometimes Italy).
- Be careful when ordering a lower-priced house wine. The reason we don’t recommend the house wine for beginners is it’s usually quite a nondescript wine. It’s at a particular price point because it’s cheap for the restaurant to serve. This isn’t the case 100% of the time but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Look for wines by the glass at one price level up instead, or consider ordering a bottle.
- Keep tasting notes. Keep a record of what you like and dislike about particular wines and grape varieties. Write down the names of the fruit you can taste, aromatics and anything that comes to mind. You might pick up on odd notes like stone, leather or tobacco (these are definitely flavors in some wines so write them down). Comment on color, texture, how the wine goes with what you’re eating etc. Learn more about the different colors of wine in this article.
- Try different producers of the same wine. Sometimes you might try a wine and think you don’t like it or the grape varietal. You should always have the wine again but from a different producer and/or a different country. This is in case it’s just the style of the winemaker or the region (and not the grape) that wasn’t to your liking.
- Buy yourself a red and a white wine glass. They make different types of glasses for different wines to help bring out the full flavor profile of the grapes you’re tasting. As a beginner, you don’t need that level of specificity but you should have a general white and a general red glass on hand that each hold at least 12 ounces (remember to never pour them more than half full). White wine stemware is typically smaller than red, unless it’s made for an oaked Chardonnay.
- Don’t equate price to quality. The best wines are not the most expensive! There are plenty of good value wines in the $15-25 range that aren’t overly pricey and will be just right if you’re a beginner. We generally recommend steering clear of wines that are less than $10 as they can be bulk blends that lack the characteristics that make wine such an interesting beverage to enjoy.
