Here’s an update on reds recommended to be off-dry and fruity, which I recently tried:
Il Poggione Rosso Di Montalcino 2016 (baby brunello)
Hartford Court - Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2015
Double Lariat - Cabernet Savignon 2015
Bootleg Prequel - Red Wine 2014
Louis Jadot 2015 - Borgogne Pinot Noir
Beaujolais Villages - Tracot Dubost Recolte 2016
Collazzi Bastioni - Chianti Classico 2015
Valmorena - Barbera D’Asti 2017
Murphy-Goode - Pinot Noir 2013
So far, to me, the baby brunello was the best (most fruity, moderate sweetness), followed by Beaujolais, Murphy-Goode Pinot, Double Lariat cab, Borgnone Pinot, Barbera, Chianti Classico, Hartford Court Pinot, then Bootleg Prequel.
The Chianti Classico, in spite of the heritage of the Sangiovese grape, had little opacity and didn’t seem very fruity with a broad spectrum, but rather a narrow flavor of grape. So at present, I am really leaning on the baby brunello, and the cali pinots (bergundys). Aside from the baby brunello, the pinots seem to be more fruity and have a consistent taste – while most of the other reds tried have a taste that fluctuates(?)
When beaujolais is in harvest next month, I’ll try to sample a few and see how they rate against pinots, and will also try more baby brunellos and classic brunellos.
(thus far, several pseudo-sommeliers at stores stated that merlots and syrahs are not recommended)
A tip for you, Len: most of those wines are not off-dry. The Rosso di Montalcino is definitely not. I wouldn’t call it fruity either. It sounds like what you’re liking are reds that don’t have too much bitterness (which can come from the grape variety or from oak), but it’s tough to find a common theme. I think you should abandon the “off-dry, fruity” qualifiers and just try a bunch of different reds. Maybe look at a basic wine book as you do to build up a little vocabulary so you’ll be able to better understand and describe what you like. Good luck! It’s a fun journey.
Yeah, most of those wines are not off-dry at all. Chianti and Rosso tend to be very dry wines, sometimes with earthy, leathery or other non-fruit flavors that are challenging if you’re looking for fruit. Beaujolais is fruity but dry. Some of those Cali red blends might have some residual sugar.
If you really want an off-dry red the only thing I can recommend (in a table wine, as opposed to something like Port) is Lambrusco.
And don’t overlook Caymus or Conundrum. The latter especially is highly appreciated by people who want a widely available fairly sweet fruity white wine. There’s a red version too but I’ve never brought myself to try it.
And there’s no reason to wait for Beaujolais to be harvested, any more than any other region or grape, unless you only want the youngest versions that come out in November. Those will be fruity and light. Not all Beaujolais is.
Off-dry reds are actually quite rare. You’d have to seek out a wine that is “self-labelled” as off-dry, and typically such a wine would have been made in that style intentionally. Lambrusco is really the only example I can think of that is really a high-quality, well made off-dry red wine…And while there may be a few Cali reds which truly are off-dry, I think the vast majority of Cali wines (including almost any you would see widely distributed) are actually fully dry wines but may give the illusion of some slight sweetness simply due to the association your brain makes with very fruit-forward aromas and flavors (i.e. when you taste or smell ripe strawberries, blackberries or blueberries, your mind immediately thinks “sweet”).
I agree with the earlier post here that you’re just using the wrong terminology, and perhaps have simply confused “off dry” with either “fruity,” “light bodied”, “non-bitter,” “non-acidic,” or “non-tannic”. In addition, you may be assuming you like a certain characteristic of wine (i.e. “fruity”) while your actual preference (baby Brunello) may be quite different (somewhat lean, light bodied, and rather acidic). Based on your preference for the Ross di Montalcino, I would suggest tasting through a number of other examples of Sangiovese (a few more Chiantis, a couple of Brunellos made in extremely different styles, etc.). It is really impossible to generalize about, for example, Chianti, based on fewer than 4-5 examples…In addition, I would suggest trying some Nebbiolo.
In any event, after you taste some more reds, please do come back and post your preferences, as it’s fascinating to see how for all of us, our expectations and reality aren’t always aligned, and also how different people at different stages of their wine journey react to different wines…
Yea it sounds like you’re looking for fruitier reds that are less tannic (which would give that drying sensation in the mouth that many people are referring to when they say ‘dry’, while technically incorrect, it’s a very common usage). Off dry implies actual residual sugar as in Riesling or Lambrusco. I would recommend you try Barbera, or even Grenache. best of luck
Len, as a few have mentioned, the wines you mentioned aren’t actually off-dry, and you may not actually want off-dry. Many people say sweet, when they actually mean fruity.
Wines based on Grenache and those from Beaujolais may generally fit the bill for you (as a broad generalization), as would a lot of California pinot noirs and Aussie Shiraz.
If you really want (nearly) off-dry reds, that’s actually pretty easy to find. Many of the widely distributed wines from the US or Australia that you see at restaurants or on supermarket shelves these days actually are made with perceptible sweetness (residual sugar), such as Yellowtail, Cupcake, Barefoot, Apothic, etc. While this mostly affects wines that retail for under $25, there are notable ones that are more expensive which also have perceptible residual sugar (Caymus, The Prisoner, etc). There are also a few traditional styles that produce truly off-dry red wine, most notably Hungarian “Bulls Blood”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egri_Bikavér
