Nearly 40% Pick This Type Of Wine As Their Favorite

Speculating about wine trends never gets old. Which white variety will be the "new" Chardonnay? Will a new movie, like "Sideways" did, affect purchasing decisions made by consumers who shunned Merlot for Pinot Noir following the film's success? What varietal will surge in popularity as rosé has in recent years?

At the beginning of 2022, we reported on some wine predictions from Reddit for this year, and what was predicted to see a huge increase was the sparkling wine category, including Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava, along with the new sparkling darling of the wine biz, pétillant naturel, or "pet-nat" for short.

What we expect consumers to do isn't always what they actually do, though. So, to find out which wines our readers love the most, we conducted a poll of 626 of you. We posed the question: Which is your favorite type of wine? Readers could choose from the following categories: red, white, rosé, sparkling, or dessert. Which type of wine came out on top?

By far, the most popular type of wine is red, according to 242 of you, which is roughly 39% of respondents. The second most popular type is white wine, with 128 votes, or around 20%. Rosé came in third, with 108 votes, about 17%, and sparkling wine is fourth, with 86 votes and nearly 14%. In last place are dessert wines, with 62 votes and close to 10%.

Of course, within each of these categories of wine, consumers have lots of room for experimentation, with a range of grape varieties, countries of origin, and production methods. One trend, for example, is aging wines in containers other than traditional oak barrels or stainless steel fermentation tanks. Another wine trend is natural wine, with offerings that span all the categories of our survey. 

It's interesting to note that, while categories like rosé wine have seen huge recent increases, it's still the traditional red and white wines that come out on top for readers of Tasting Table.