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No-Fuss Guide · No. 23

Wine for beginners: where to start, without fear

Start with what you already like, and taste with attention. There's no right wine to start with: science shows that some people prefer sweet, some prefer dry and some like everything. A red full of tannin is the one that tastes most bitter and dries the mouth most, which is why many people find it strange at first; that's fine.

You're not alone

Brazil has never drunk so much wine: by the OIV's preliminary estimate, it was 4.4 million hectoliters in 2025, about 440 million liters, an all-time record and 41.9% more than in 2024, while the world drank less. Per person it's still not much (1.4 liters per inhabitant in 2024, by the count of Embrapa, Brazil's agricultural research agency, which divides by the whole population). And the wine that sells most by volume is table wine, made from American and hybrid grapes: Rio Grande do Sul alone sold 182 million liters of it in 2024, more than all the fine wine sold in the country, domestic and imported combined. If you started with the garrafão (the big jug), you're in good company.

Why red is the hardest at first

The bitterness in wine comes mainly from phenols in the tannin family and from the alcohol itself, explains a classic 1994 paper: tannin dries the mouth, and more alcohol makes the bitterness stronger and longer. In a test with 102 people, the “bigger” tannins lowered how much people liked the drink. In other words: finding a full-bodied red strange at first is normal, not a lack of palate. The tannin guide explains the sensation.

Taste is personal, and curiosity counts more than your tongue

In a study of 329 consumers, three groups emerged: those who like everything, those who like dry but not sweet, and those who like sweet. Genetics plays a small part (some people taste bitterness more strongly), but age weighed more. And a second study, of 330 wine drinkers, found the best part: sensitivity to bitterness didn't predict who's up for trying new wines. Experience with wine and curiosity about food did.

One possible path

1. Start with your own taste. Like sweet? Moscatel, a moscatel sparkling wine or a sweet (suave) wine; there's sweet rosé too, but check whether the label says “suave” (sweet) or “meio seco” (medium-dry). Nothing to be embarrassed about: the dry or sweet guide explains the scale.
2. Taste two at a time, with only one difference between them (the same grape from two countries, for example). Compare puts their profiles side by side.
3. With reds, Wine Folly suggests starting with grapes with easy, bold fruit, each one teaching you something: Garnacha (acidity), Zinfandel (alcohol), Shiraz (body), Petite Sirah (tannin) and Carménère (the herbaceous, “green” side).
4. With food. With meat, a tannic red usually goes down more easily, and the wine changes with the dish: churrasco, pizza, pasta.
5. Write down what you liked. Your cellar keeps the bottles and the notes.

How to taste, in four steps

It's the method of the WSET, which presents itself as the world's largest provider of wine qualifications, in a pocket version: look (the color, whether it's clear), smell, taste (sweet or dry, acidity, tannin, alcohol, body, whether the flavor lingers a long or a short time) and conclude. And the house adds the question that matters: did you like it? Why? The words are in the glossary.