If you’re an old-school wine drinker such as myself, it can come as a bit of a shock to be poured a red wine that turns out to be unconscionably sweet. It’s a bit like taking a big gulp from a mug of tea to which someone has added three sugars. You expect it from an amarone and from wines that carry the description passito or appassimento on the label, because that indicates they have been fermented on partially dried grapes to add extra sweetness.
Certain wine regions tend to produce sweeter reds as a matter of course: Puglia’s primitivo and negroamaro, for instance, and some cheaper wines from the Lisbon region; California reds, too, tend to be sweeter than most European ones, as do some Georgian reds, because it’s a style that was traditionally popular in that country’s former main export market, Russia.
