Suggestions on first wine

[lkapell]

I am a novice also, but a little further along than you. First, in case you haven't figured this out, wines are classified as sweet or dry. Dry means that all the natural grape sugar has been neutralized during fermentation; sweet, of course, means that some sugar survived the fermentation process. Note that even a "sweet" wine is usually not sweet in the same way that a soda-pop is sweet.

White wines are usually lighter in taste, red are more likely to be dry and 'rough' (to me, they feel like swallowing sandpaper). There are exceptions though, such as lambrusco, a very light and sweet red wine. The same wine can come in both sweet and dry varieties, so be alert.

There are two other categories to be aware of: one is sparkling wines, of which the most popular are champagne (dry) and spumanti (sweet). The other is dessert wines such as sherry and port. These are also called "fortified" wines because their alcohol content is higher than that of regular wine (about 20% compared to 10-15%). These wines are sweet but the taste is richer and stronger than dinner wines.

Hope this helps!