Top 10 Sweetest Red Wines in the World of 2024 for Beginners

For many people new to wine, sweet red wines are a great entry point. Thankfully, some good sweet red wines are readily available at online wine stores or at your local grocer.

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While all wines contain sugar, not all wines are considered sweet. When you look at a red wine sweetness chart, you'll see that many wines are on the sweet side, while others are very low in sugar and are considered "extremely dry."

Why are some wines sweeter than others?

The answer lies in the residual sugar in the wine. Residual sugar is a term in the wine world that refers to the sugar present in a bottle of wine once the wine is finished and ready to drink.

Grapes are notoriously high in sugar, which means that all wine, no matter how dry, contains some naturally occurring sugar. During fermentation, however, winemakers add yeast to convert these natural sugars into ethanol, or alcohol.

While the yeast converts most of the glucose into alcohol, sometimes the grapes are much higher in sugar, or the winemaker chooses to add extra sugar. This means that the yeast cannot convert all the sugar into alcohol, resulting in a wine with high levels of residual sugar.

Among them, Port wine, Madeira wine and Marsala wine are the most prominent. There are also many types of specialty dessert wines, including Dolce, Dessert, Sec, Demi-sec, Late Harvest, and more.

Top 10 Sweetest Red Wines in the World of 2024 for Beginners

#1.     Philip Togni Vineyard, Ca’Togni Sweet Red

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Ca’ Togni is a dessert wine of inspired history, harking back to the days of the famous Constantia wine of South Africa, which was a favorite of Napoleon and Frederick the Great, among other European royalty. Cherries, cloves, chocolate, and licorice nearly jump out of the glass, welcoming you to a sweet wine to be sipped with family and friends. This is pure holiday spirit captured within a wine.

#2.     Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage Port 2019

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The 2019 Vintage Port is a field blend aged for 18 months in old wood vats. It was bottled May 4, 2021, and has 100 grams of residual sugar.

Quinta do Vesuvio is arguably the most magnificent estate in the Douro valley. Located in the beautiful and austere Port-growing region of the Upper Douro valley, its history dates back to the 16th Century. All of the grapes are hand-picked, with a careful selection being made. Vesuvio is one of the very few estates in the Douro where all of the wines are made using the traditional treading method in granite lagares, among the largest in the Douro valley, and offered exclusively as a single Quinta Vintage Port. Classic, monumental wines with fabulous rich fruit character.

2019 was a challenging year with very little rainfall until the end of August which extended the picking season. It has produced ports that are build for aging. The Quinta do Vesuvio has plenty of dark rich brooding fruit and lifted floral notes behind. It needs plenty of time to come round to its full potential.

Deep opaque inky black hue; tight knit and unyielding with underlying minty ripeness on the nose; well-defined minty fruit with great purity and intensity on the palate, dark chocolate depth at the core, firm but ripe linear tannins with, long lovely freshness (the hallmark of this vintage) present on the finish. 

#3.     Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz

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The name says it all! 100% Shiraz, gently sweet and medium-bodied, this is a wine for any occasion. Enjoy by itself or with BBQ, fruity desserts, or chocolate. Try serving slightly chilled for a refreshing twist.

Crafted in a lighter style than your typical Shiraz, this fresh, fruity, semi-sweet wine displays aromas and flavors of ripe blueberries, blackberries and raspberries with dark chocolate undertones. Refreshing and approachable with a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity, it makes a great aperitif and pairs equally well with meat dishes, cheeses, and desserts.

#4.     San Antonio Cardinale Wine

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California- American Cardinale is a classic San Antonio Winery blend. A refreshing juicy dark red wine perfect for many occasions. For the best sipping experience, serve lightly chilled.

San Antonio® Cardinale is a sweet red wine. It is a proprietary blend created by the Riboli family. Cardinale can be enjoyed by itself or with your favorite cuisine. Serve slightly chilled. Gold medal winner in national competitions.

#5.     Graham's 20 Year Old Tawny Port

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Echoes of sweet golden raisin and hazelnut linger on the finish, which is polished and long. A beauty. 

It has an amber, golden tawny colour. On the nose, it shows an excellent bouquet with a characteristic „nutty? character and delicious mature fruit with hints of orange peel, exquisitely mellowed by careful ageing. Rich, softly sweet and smooth On the palate, it is perfectly balanced, with a long and elegant finish.

Graham's 20 Years Old pairs extremely well with nuts, dried fruits and fruitcake, but is also delicious as an accompaniment to vanilla ice cream or crème brûlée. Serve slightly chilled to appreciate the full complexity and sensuous pleasure of this wine.  This is an excellent alternative to Vintage Port at less formal occasions and will keep for some weeks after opening.

#6.     Graham's Six Grapes Reserve Ruby Port

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One of the most famous Port wines in the world, and certainly the bottling that Graham’s is best known for.

Six Grapes is immediately recognizable with its distinctive 6 bunch label. This label harks back to a time gone by, when Graham’s used grape bunch marks to illustrate the degrees of quality of wines as they were shipped from Duoro to Porto for bottling. Only wines of the highest quality received the Six Grapes mark, and only these were acceptable to be bottled as Graham’s Vintage Port.

This bottling contains youthful, rich, fruit forward wines initially designated for Vintage Port, only not to be included in the final blend. Six Grapes is typically aged for between 1 to 2 years in seasoned oak casks.

Indeed, the wine is produced in the same manner as Graham’s Vintage, made from the same vineyards (mostly with grapes of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca, the four top grapes for Port making), fermented in the same single variety batches and with the grapes juiced in the same way.

The wine serves up notes of blackberries, raspberries, black cherries, red grapes, a touch of oak and toffee. Pairs wonderfully with blue cheese or dark chocolates.

Six Grapes is bottled at 20% ABV, with an acidity of 4.5 grams of tartaric acid per litre and a Baumé (sweetness) level of 3.6.

A veritable icon of the Port world, and a delicious one at that.

#7.     Cleto Chiarli Lambrusco Lambrusco di Modena Amabile

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A hundred years after its founding in 1860 the Chiarli family debuted a new wine, appropriately named "Centenario." It used the Charmat method of effervescent winemaking that Chiarli had introduced to Lambrusco production area a few years earlier. Centenario—a new wine for a new age—showcased the slightly sweeter side of Lambrusco. The wine is amabile, literally "lovable," a designation for wines that are sweet but not so sweet they can only be served with dessert. It's produced with Lambrusco Grasparossa, a grape variety with deep color and high natural acidity that can counter the sugar content. The result is a well-balanced, intense red, soft, lightly effervescent wine that is indeed lovable.

The Chiarli Centenario Amabile Lambrusco di Grasparossa wine has to be joined by dessert. It is perfect also with typical courses from Emilia and with cold cuts starters. It has to be served at 10°-12°C in high and tapered wine glasses such as the bordeaux. 

#8.     Yalumba Antique Tawny Port 

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This velvety wine is blended from antique barrels of Yalumba’s very best tawny, and laid down in their historic cellars over many years. The aging process evaporates a tiny angel’s share every year leaving a rich, concentrated wine with a nutty character.

Amber tawny in color with an olive green hue, exhibiting aromas of rich toffee and caramels, sweet figs, chocolate, caramel and licorice spices with elegant brandy spirit and hints of nutty wood aged complexity. The palate is richly flavored featuring caramel creme brulee with fine spirit characters and lingering flavors of dried fruits and nuts. The texture is sweet and smooth with roundness from the wood maturation and brandy spirit filling out the middle palate, providing the firm, drying finish. This is an outstanding dessert wine.

#9.     Botticello Dolce Rosso Lambrusco

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This wine from Botticello is a true Italian wine. This is a delicacy in Northern Italy, from the Emilia-Romagna region, where one of the specialties is the sparkling red Lambrusco. Refrigerate and serve with thinly sliced prosciutto.

Strawberry, raspberry and floral aromas blend with smooth cherries. Everything about this wine is mild and pleasant: mild tannins, mild acidity, mild sweetness and mild fizz. Despite being very mild, this wine is very special.

#10.     Dal Forno Romano Passito Vigna Sere

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The Dal Forno family has been making wine since 1983. Located in Val D’Illasi, the estate consists of 65 acres of vines planted to traditional indigenous varieties of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta and Croatina. The estate vineyards and farm are located where the slopes begin to rise toward the mountains and sit 1,000 feet above sea level. The loose, alluvial soils, meticulous pruning and scrupulous viticultural techniques ensure remarkable-quality grapes. The Dal Fornos use traditional methods to grow the finest fruit, and then employ modern techniques to produce the best wines — classic in expression and modern in purity. Dal Forno Romano is well-known for a number of superior wines that range from the region’s famous Valpolicella and Amarone to unique bottlings such as Vigne Seré, a passito dessert-style wine.

The Dal Forno Passito Vigna Sere is considered the jewel in the crown the estate. Produced in very limited amounts and on very rare occasions, it showcases the history of the land from where it hails. Vigna Sere possesses immense opulence and density, with preeminent hints of plum, black cherry, raspberry, chocolate and coffee. A good level of sharpness supports the refined tannins that, with their sweetness and elegance, gift the drinker moments of intense emotions. Persistence. Nuances of truffle, tobacco and new leather wrap around the finish.

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