Good Morning gang.
Ronnie....Sean gave some good advice.
Wine shops and liquor stores can be very helpful if they have a Sommelier (wine expert) or wine steward on hand. When you asked the following,
luvsgrtdanes said:Question for you wine drinkers...I like a good sweet red...what do you recomend? I have Taylor port and Riunite lambrusco in the fridge and so far I haven't had a headache from either one Something along those lines.
I was assuming you wanted a red wine that was suitable for everyday sipping as well as for dinner or something you could serve with a salad/appetizers. I made the suggestion of the two reds for you for the following reasons:
Reds have far more tannins (natural substance that comes from the pips, skins and stems and makes your mouth feel fuzzy like you've eaten walnuts) than whites because they typically ferment the grapes with these substances for color.
Most of us here seem to prefer a 'smoother' mouth feel than the dryer---more tannin heavy feel of many red wines and seem to like the same ones that are 'lighter' and therefore a little more on the sweeter side because they favor more berry flavors instead of the heavy grape flavors.
Sorry if I confused you.
Now Moscato, Riesling and Gewurztraminer are all very sweet but they are also white wines. They are not red wines. You had asked about red wines so I did not mention these.
There are also rose/blush wines which are very sweet BUT....just my opinion....you have to try some to see if you like them. It is hard to find a 'good one' that doesn't taste like cough syrup of like strawberry soda with cheap booze added to it.
(My husband's opinion, for what it is worth, on the Apothic Rose was that it was good because it wasn't too sweet. I found it plenty sweet but did not find it offensive and cheap tasting. Neither one of us would buy it again unless it was on sale. We weren't 'WOWED' by it. That's just us. Our preference is reds or very zesty, high acid, citrus-y, whites.) You may like it. I can only say try it if you want.
There are dessert wines in both red and white and those are: Port, Madeira, Sherry, Riesling, Sauternes, Muscato, Asti Spumante, Vouvray and Vin Santo. They are super, super sweet and only typically served at the end of the meal for dessert or with fruit and cheese.
I do know champagne is the one wine which can be served the entire course of the dinner from start to finish and not be considered a 'faux pas' and is considered to 'go with everything'. There are plenty of super sweet, semi-sweet, dry and extra dry champagnes out there. I've seen plenty of reasonably priced ones. Uh....just beware of the hangover! There's nothing more ferocious than a champagne hangover.
Hope some of that was helpful to you.
So dinner yesterday................
It became a bigger project than I intended but well worth it. I made garlic shrimp scampi in a white wine, lemon and butter sauce over linguine. Served it up with garlic toast on the side and plenty of yummy salad and the Apothic Rose. It was gooooooooood!
No idea what is going on for today's dinner. Whatever it will be will not involve as much labor and cooking as yesterday's.