Best Wine For Beginners: 10 Styles & Best Bottles To Try In 2024

Starting your wine journey and want to find out the best wine for beginners among the zillion styles available today?

We’ve got you covered!

While your appreciation of wine flavors will depend on your palate, it’s a good idea to get familiar with some of the world’s most popular easy-drinking wines. 

Let’s talk about the best red and white wines for beginners and the 10 best wine bottles that you should try out now! We’ll also cover some essential tips to help you choose the best wine as a beginner.

Best Wine for Beginners: Red Wines 

Here are some easy-drinking, approachable red wines for beginners that will turn you into a wine lover in no time.

Red wines get their distinct color and tannins from the red grape skin during fermentation. The mouth-watering red wines you can try are:

• Pinot Noir
• Zinfandel
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Malbec
• Petite Sirah

1. Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is the best red wine for beginners since it’s light-bodied, not too bold, and soft on tannins. The wines are generally dry, earthy with notes of cherry and raspberry. 

The Pinot Noir grape is used to make varietal as well as red blend wines.

Some excellent wine pairing options with Pinot Noir are duck, mushrooms, pork, and chicken.

2. Zinfandel

Although Zinfandel is medium to full-bodied, it’s more of a fruit-forward wine, making it a fantastic choice for new wine enthusiasts.

Its delicious blackberry, strawberry, and baking spice aroma make it a heavenly match with barbeque dishes.

Interestingly, you’ll also find pink wines made from the White Zinfandel grape variety.

3. Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is a medium to full-bodied wine with relatively high tannins and acidity. Still, its fruity notes of plum, blackberry, and black pepper make it a good wine for beginners. 

This wine pairs best with braised short ribs, steak, or hamburgers.

4. Malbec

Malbec is a rich, dry wine with complex flavors. It bursts with juicy flavors of black cherry, pomegranate, raspberry, and raisin balanced beautifully with coffee, cocoa, and vanilla notes.

Lean meats, mushrooms, blue cheese, and cumin make a delicious combination with Malbec. 

5. Petite Sirah

Not the same as Syrah wines, Petite Sirah is a full-bodied red wine with a distinct flavor profile of dark chocolate, blueberry, and black tea - mainly due to its high tannin content.

You can pair this wine with richer, more fatty foods like roasted pork, beef burgers, fresh mozzarella, caramelized onions, and more.

Some other easy red wines include Beaujolais Nouveau (a Gamay red wine) and Moscato.

Best White Wines For Beginners

White wines have lower tannins than red wines. That’s because they are usually fermented without grape skins. 

White wine can also be made from red wine grapes after removing their skins.

Here are some famous white wines for beginners:

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio)
• Chardonnay
• Riesling
• Chenin Blanc

1. Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a light-bodied beginner white wine with asparagus, grapefruit, and herbaceous aromas. 

This wine makes a great combination with light dishes like green vegetables and chicken, pork, or fish with herbs.

2. Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio)

This white wine grape variety is known as Pinot Gris in France and Pinot Grigio in Italy.

French Pinot Gris wines are full-bodied and slightly sweet, while Italian Pinot Grigio is light-bodied with a distinct citrus aroma.

It’s an excellent wine for starting your wine journey since it’s quite soft and approachable.

The rich Pinot Gris makes a good pair with creamy pasta, roast pork, and hard cheeses. The lighter Pinot Grigio is a perfect apéritif, or you can pair it with salads, grilled shrimp, or fruit plates.

3. Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a full-bodied, dry wine whose flavors depend on whether it is oaked or unoaked or grown in cool or warm climates. 

Oaked Chardonnay has a buttery texture and taste with hints of vanilla and spice, while unoaked Chardonnay wine is crisper and has bright citrus flavors.

Chardonnays from cooler climates are more acidic and light-bodied, with citrus flavors and mineral characters. The wines from warmer regions have less acidity, a full-body, and tropical fruit flavors.

Cream sauces, lobster, and scallops are scrumptious dishes that taste delicious with this beautiful wine.

4. Riesling

Riesling wines have a noticeably high acidity that enhances their juiciness. Young Riesling wines have a rich, fruity aroma and distinct green apple, pear, and apricot flavors. 

Aged Rieslings can have subtle petroleum or gasoline notes - indicative of a high–quality aged wine. 

You can enjoy a dry Riesling with spicy Thai curry or crispy sesame chicken. Sweet Riesling pairs beautifully with milky cheese and a dried fruit platter.

5. Chenin Blanc

What makes Chenin Blanc great for wine beginners is its wide range of styles. This white wine can be a dry, off-dry, sweet, or sparkling wine. 

The dry wine is often tarty with ginger, pear, and quince flavors. The off-dry styles have a richer taste of ripe pear, passion fruit, ginger, and honeycomb.

Sweet Chenin Blanc boasts dried persimmon, toasted almond, and mango flavors, while the sparkling ones come with characteristic yellow apple, plum, and floral notes.

This wine’s crisp acidity and inherent sweet flavor pair wonderfully with Southeast Asian cuisine, trout, cream cheese, yogurt, carrots, mushroom, and more.

You can also try other white wines like Prosecco and Moscato d'Asti.

Now let’s look at the top ten wine bottles that you’ll instantly fall in love with.

10 Easy-to-Drink Wine Bottles for Beginners

These ten wines are perfect for beginners:

• 2018 Caymus Vineyards Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2016 Domaine du Collier Saumur Blanc La Charpenterie
• 2016 Rochioli Estate Chardonnay
• 2019 Domaine Weinbach Clos des Capucins Cuvée Sainte Catherine Alsace Pinot Gris
• 2014 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Spätlese
• 2019 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
• 2018 Obscura Petite Sirah
• 2016 Amisfield Sauvignon Blanc
• 2019 Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Pinot Noir
• 2018 Bogle Old Vine California Zinfandel

1. 2018 Caymus Vineyards Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon ($230)

This soft, concentrated red wine has black currant and blackberry aromas with a lush and rich palate of leather, caramel, chocolate, and raisin.

2. 2016 Domaine du Collier Saumur Blanc La Charpenterie ($121)

This rich and wonderfully textured Chenin Blanc opens with honey, flint, and orchard fruit flavor, followed by long-lasting savory spice notes.

3. 2016 Rochioli Estate Chardonnay ($60)

This delicious white wine has a slightly citrus nose with oak spice and vanilla. The palate has delightful lemon notes that carry on to the finish and are perfectly balanced with medium butter.

4. 2019 Domaine Weinbach Clos des Capucins Cuvée Sainte Catherine Alsace Pinot Gris ($54)

This creamy, rich white wine is balanced beautifully with racy acidity and pineapple, pear, and ginger notes.

5. 2014 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Spätlese ($26)

This German Riesling comes with a medium, well-balanced acidity and ripe apple, apricot, lanolin, and waxy notes.

6. 2019 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio ($23)

This pleasant dry white wine bursts with pineapple on the nose and orange and lemon on the palate.

7. 2018 Obscura Petite Sirah ($22)

This full-bodied red wine gives off comforting aromas of baking spice and vanilla with rich, ripe plum and blackberry jam flavors.

8. 2016 Amisfield Sauvignon Blanc ($20)

This refreshingly acidic white wine offers lemon, lime, and apricot flavors and a similar crisp, citrus finish.

9. 2019 Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Pinot Noir ($19)

This Pinot Noir is a soft, fruit-forward red wine with a well-balanced body, acidity, tannins, and decadent raspberry, cherry, dark chocolate, and caramel flavors.

10. 2018 Bogle Old Vine California Zinfandel ($12)

This deep red wine has a nose of oak, cherry, and blackberry. Wine tasting reveals a black cherry palate.

How to Choose the Best Wine as a Beginner

Before you head out shopping for a wine bottle, here are some basic tips that will help you choose the best wine. 

• Sweetness: Many beginners may find a sweet wine (or dessert wine) like ice wine more enjoyable since they are easier on the palate.

• Acidity: The acidity determines how tarty the wine will taste. A newer wine drinker may enjoy wines with a lower acidity like Grenache and Merlot since they’re soft and creamy.

• Tannins: Tannins come from grape skin and give the wine a dry texture and a subtly bitter flavor. So, you can go for wines with lower tannins. Red wine tends to have higher tannins than white or rosé wine. 

• Body: The term “body” essentially means how heavy the wine feels when you drink it. If you’re new to the wine world, you can start with lighter wines that don’t overwhelm your taste bud.

The World of Wine is For You To Explore!

Wine beginners may find all the wine terms and styles very intimidating. But once you start exploring the exotic styles, you’ll find the perfect one for your palate.

Visit the Vinovest website to discover the magnificent world of wine.

Vinovest also lets you buy, store, and sell quality wines from any wine region globally, including Clare Valley, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Napa Valley, and more.