Depends on the person and his taste.

Without knowing more about them I'd say petite sirah or riesling

Cooking wine, what do they know..

Single Malt. Why give them something they don't drink?

Riesling is always tasty.

Beaujolais Villages

Depends on the person's general tastes, but the most important principle to keep in mind is that whatever you recommend should be a straightforward wine which does not require experience to appreciate. Additional considerations include moderate alcohol, no more than light to moderate tannin (if red), fresher rather than overripe fruit flavors, and a lack of a single overwhelming characteristic such as too much oak. Balanced.

Moscato is great for people just starting to try wine.

I am always a fan of funky, chunky, purpletooth couchpounder Cali Zins. Just a personal bias. Get the best pizza or pasta that you can, with a good bottle of this, and go to town.

natalieug wrote:Beaujolais Villages

Not a bad choice, if well-made. The difficulty is that 3/4 of Beaujolais Villages is virtually undrinkable, and 98% of Beaujolais Nouveaux is undrinkable.

JadedMouse wrote:Moscato is great for people just starting to try wine.

Only if the people have very pronounced sweet teeth.

threemoons wrote:I am always a fan of funky, chunky, purpletooth couchpounder Cali Zins. Just a personal bias. Get the best pizza or pasta that you can, with a good bottle of this, and go to town.

For most non-wine drinkers, this may be the worst possible choice: too alcoholic, too tannic and too overpoweringly overripe, even for pizza or pasta.

Wines of this type are typically for laying down and avoiding (apologies to Monty Python....)

mdkopper wrote:Cooking wine, what do they know..

You're of the "if they decide they hate wine, all the more for me" school, I take it.

pullmyheartstrings wrote:Riesling is always tasty.

Riesling is tricky, but can be a very good introduction.

Certainly, it was by far the preferred wine for US military types stationed in Europe over the past 70-odd years, most of whom had not been wine drinkers before the went overseas. (as an aside, in the mid-1970s, one could always buy very, very good German wines in military exchanges at very reasonable prices - far better selections and prices than for either California or French wine).

JadedMouse wrote:Moscato is great for people just starting to try wine.

I agree, or a sweet red.

A really good von Kesselstadt piesporter goldtropchen is my fave.

If a person is really new or inexperienced with wine, chances are they will find a white the most palatable. I'd recommend a nice aromatic Riesling.
Please note that, this is a purely subjective comment coming from someone who allowed her 13-year-old sister talk her 12-yr-old self into drinking the better part of a half gallon bottle of burgundy, one night, while the parents were out. Bad idea. Hard lesson. Only had to learn it once.

I would always suggest a late-harvest, or any after-dinner sweet wine.

rpm wrote:98% of Beaujolais Nouveaux is undrinkable.

Indeed. And I have yet to find the 2% that is drinkable.

It really depends on the person, as others have noted. Having said that, dry Gewurtz from the Anderson Valley or even Alsace seems to have broad appeal to many.

Red wine is trickier, in my opinion, but if you're eating some hearty meat I've had success with BV Rutherford cabernet. In my experience people either love it or hate it, so pour a small glass at Zany to the max!

A good Riesling is usually safe but if you don't mind spending a bit more, then most any German ice wine is perfect. They are fruity and refreshing. Like a cool, crisp, fruit juice with a bonus.

ddeuddeg wrote:Indeed. And I have yet to find the 2% that is drinkable.

Well, I'm trying to be generous. Back in the early 1980s, before he became fashionable and the quality went to hell, Georges Duboeuf made a drinkable Nouveau in good years. Haven't had one of his I liked since maybe 1988. I recall finding a very few which I don't remember drinkable back then when I regularly went to the trade Nouveaux tasting to help a friend decide what to stock. We'd taste at least 40-50, of which no more than 1 or 2 would be drinkable. Those were usually on allocation, so we had to find also the least undrinkable wine he could get in sufficient quantity to keep the customers who were looking for the stuff happy. Although the food was usually good at that tasting (which we enjoyed after our forced march through the wines), it was probably my least favorite tasting of the year. I did once eat free at a now gone Italian trattoria in the Village for a year or more when I was able to get (and give to) the owner a case of the Duboeuf Nouveaux that he couldn't get from his distributor. The essence of a good deal: we both got what we wanted, we both thought we got the better of the bargain, and, given our cost differentials, both did.

Moscato!

rpm wrote:Riesling is tricky, but can be a very good introduction.

Certainly, it was by far the preferred wine for US military types stationed in Europe over the past 70-odd years, most of whom had not been wine drinkers before the went overseas. (as an aside, in the mid-1970s, one could always buy very, very good German wines in military exchanges at very reasonable prices - far better selections and prices than for either California or French wine).

I have a hard time deciphering the various labeling conventions on German wines, despite some familiarity with the language (not quite passably spoken, but not too far off either). My wife and I spent a week in the Mosel Valley and had some very lovely wines while there, but finding a consistent descriptor of how a wine tastes on most labels (beyond trocken and halb-trocken, which were accurate descriptors, though not actually on many labels) was still rather difficult.

jawlz wrote:I have a hard time deciphering the various labeling conventions on German wines, despite some familiarity with the language (not quite passably spoken, but not too far off either). My wife and I spent a week in the Mosel Valley and had some very lovely wines while there, but finding a consistent descriptor of how a wine tastes on most labels (beyond trocken and halb-trocken, which were accurate descriptors, though not actually on many labels) was still rather difficult.

German labels give much information, but little in the way of description about taste: it will give you the name of the grape, the quality level, some indication of the level of sweetness (more helpful as the wines get sweeter) and so on. If you don't know what those descriptors mean it's not helpful, even confusing. I almost never buy German wines that are not Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA), and almost always those are mit Prädikat.

If you like relatively dry wines, get a Kabinett Prädikat wine labeled 'trocken'. (Remembering that Riesling is floral and may seem sweeter because of the aroma than it is and, the acid balance may make something a bit sweeter seem drier than it is....)

Spätlese wines will be sweeter and Auslese sweeter yet.

Those are the wines most of us encounter and drink.

Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines are very sweet desert wines, expensive and not particularly commonly found.

Lychee wine was the first wine I ever tried that I liked, Pumpkin was second, with Moscato being third. I still dislike most wines.

JadedMouse wrote:Moscato is great for people just starting to try wine.

I'd suggest to buy grape remains, crush them and make own wine It'll cost a few dollars 'cause fruit stores usually get rid of them, and it'll be enough for one bottle.

Probably a Sangiovese, Zinfandel, or Tempranillo. They're real wines, but can go with practically anything.

Seriously, though, wouldn't it be white zinfandel?? (and isn't that why experienced wine drinkers hate on it so much?)

rpm wrote:Depends on the person's general tastes, but the most important principle to keep in mind is that whatever you recommend should be a straightforward wine which does not require experience to appreciate. Additional considerations include moderate alcohol, no more than light to moderate tannin (if red), fresher rather than overripe fruit flavors, and a lack of a single overwhelming characteristic such as too much oak. Balanced.

Moderate alcohol unless it's a second or third date

I would recommend either a Moscato or a Riesling to someone that is just starting to drink wine. Those two choices are not overly bitter, and are a great introduction into the wide world of wine.

Throwing my hat into the Riesling ring, though I've found German ice wines quite light and easy to drink.

They also run the gamut, but most Pinot Noirs I've had are light enough for the novice.

Also, if you're cruel, Vintage Port.

Shinespark wrote:Throwing my hat into the Riesling ring, though I've found German ice wines quite light and easy to drink.

They also run the gamut, but most Pinot Noirs I've had are light enough for the novice.

Also, if you're cruel, Vintage Port.

Eiswein is rather rather and tends to be very expensive. It seems very odd to me that one would give a non-wine drinker something she or he would have trouble finding and, likely, not be able to afford on a regular basis.

Moscato, it's great for Skippy Squirrel's I happen to love it

Riesling or Gewurtz

I would suggest something that would go well with what they are eating. In most cases, that would be a chianti or a sangiovese-based wine, because they go with almost anything. If they are just hanging out by a pool and want something to sip, I would probably recommend a chenin blanc instead, unless I KNOW they like sweet stuff - then it's a German riesling.