‘Ah, you have colours? I like a nice beige wine. Or may be a tan one.’
I prefer red wines. My g/f doesn’t. She drinks white wines. Alberto Tomba said, ‘The only time an Italian drinks white wine is when he’s out of red.’
‘Everyone knows’ you’re supposed to drink red wine with red meat and white wine with fish our poultry. But I drink whatever I want, and convention be damned. Do you stick to convention? Or do you drink what you prefer regardless of what you’re ‘supposed to’ drink?
I rarely drink white wines. Yuck, they’re too sweet. I did find a dry white that was decent but I don’t recall the name. I buck the rules and drink whatever I please regardless of the food.
I drink what I like, which is usually red, but I also really like reislings with Thai food.
I wouldn’t call “sweet” a property more associated with white or red.
I just tend to drink more whites in the summer because they’re lighter. I typically prefer Australian and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs because they’re not sweet. They tend to be crisp and acidic and lively. My major complaint is that they don’t seem to have a lot of distinction from each other.
Reds, I like Burgundy (pinot noir), Bordeaux, and Cabernet Sauvignon. They tend to go with different foods, though. A good bottle of burgundy is usually just for drinking, maybe with some cheese.
A strong bottle of Cab. Sauv, or a Chianti, I’ll drink when I’m eating spicy, salty strong stuff.
So, I tend to drink both. Shoot, this summer, it seemed like Rose’s were everywhere you looked.
I prefer red, but also drink white, since that’s what my wife prefers. I don’t stick rigorously to the red wine/red meat guideline, but it’s not a bad one – a hearty red wine works best with meat, but would overpower a fish dish. Still, ultimately, you should drink whatever you like.
I do think about what I’m going to get to eat before choosing a wine at dinner. Mostly, I don’t want to end up with a wine that’s going to overpower my food, or a really strong dish that’s going to overpower the wine.
Red with red meat and white with chicken/fish can be a decent guideline if you don’t have an experience with the wines you’re being offered, but not all reds go well with meat, etc.
I wouldn’t fault anyone for their wine/food pairings though. As long as they’re not forcing me to choose the same ones!
I like both, and I love rosés. I also don’t pay a lot of attention to the red wine/white wine food guidelines. There are always exceptions - for instance, I make a pasta dish that includes romano cheese and smoked salmon. Yep, it’s fish, but it’s not exactly delicately flavored. There are both reds and whites that go well with it. There are also some white wines that shouldn’t go with lighter foods - a gewurztraminer, for example. And champagne goes with dang near everything, IMO.
I rarely drink wine and only recently found one I really like; a sweet white wine a friend used in a recipe. My family can get together and polish off several bottles of white and red, so I’m the odd duck!
I prefer white, and they’re definitely not all “sweet”. If you think so, you’ve neglected a vast array of dry whites. (and if you think non-whites aren’t sweet, don’t try the majority of white zins out there. I know they’re not necessarily supposed to be sweet, but the odds seem pretty good that a random white zin picked up at your typical liquor store will be). I prefer whites even with red meat, and drink reds rarely.
I don’t think there is a single bottle of white wine in the house, unless the wife picked one up for cooking. Red is the only color I’ll drink. I can find a red or rose to go with just about any dish I’m having, and if I can’t I’ll have beer or water instead.
White wines…blech.
Yes indeed. Drink what you like and ‘convention’ be damned. Certainly the ‘celeb’ chefs in the UK are starting to agree with this attitude.
I like a nice dry wine but have recently been getting into some nice Merlots and Shiraz. I also chill red wine (if it’s low quality).
I nearly always drink red, unless there is a nice crisp white on the menu that I can’t pass up. The food I’m eating really makes no difference, since there is always water to clean the palate, if necessary. For those who don’t like whites, try Eiswein (literally translated: ice wine) for dessert if you can find it.
Ditto. And I like my wines sweet and I have never run across a sweet white wine in my life. Not that I have tried all that many, but the ones I have drunk are appallingly dry. Same reason Ireally think champagne is stupid.
As for drinking protocol, I’d much rather have a glass of sangria or honeymead or even some light muscat any day. And I don’t travel in circles where protocol really matters.
I used to drink mostly red, until I took an introductory wine class where we tasted 6-8 wines every week for a couple of months. Up until then, I hadn’t appreciated the variety in white wines.
These days I probably drink white over red about 2-1, because it goes better with the sorts of things I cook and because I just like it. In the summertime, I don’t drink much red wine at all.
I drank white in my teens, then moved to reds, and now as I approach 30 I prefer crisp whites.
Interesting factoid: if you add red food colouring to white wine, and give it to wine critics, then will usually use “red wine terms”* to describe it.
*Blackberry, treacle, liquorice etc, rather than pear, grass or citrus.
A lot of wine preference is due to something other than taste. 
My boyfriend introduced me to red wine. Before that I refuse to drink wine because the only experiences I’d had were white wines, which…don’t appeal to me, to say the least.
That said, I appreciate a good Australian wine - those guys know how to make a good one! I tend to lean towards the cabernet sauvignon and merlot side of things - but in general, anything that’s not sweet. I’ve never liked the sweet flavor much in anything I eat or drink; I prefer a bitter or sour (as in, sour candies) taste to a sweet taste.
If someone can recommend a good, dry, non-sickly-sweet white I’ll give it a try, though. Keep in mind that I make $10 an hour so a good bottle of wine is a luxury. 
~Tasha
Go to a good wine store when they are having tastings (most of them will have at least a weekly tasting) and try before you buy. Only you can decide what you like.
There are some stupendous German whites that are on the sweet side. Not to my taste most of the time, but the ones I’ve tried were quite good. Just give me Super-Tuscans and Zins, and the random Syrah and I’m a happy boy.
My husband and I have been trying to educate ourselves about wine lately and we are certainly finding the old “red with meat, white with fish & poultry” convention is pretty outdated and it’s all about find what you like and drink it. I have a slight preference for whites while he leans toward reds. The sulfites in some of them really don’t like me.
We picked up a DVD recently that’s a few years old - John Cleese’s Wine for the Confused . It was fun and lightweight but had some good basics for beginners. One of the things he did was to have several friends over for a wine tasting. All liked wine but nobody was an expert. Opinions about wines diverged wildly, with some people preferring the $5 bottles to vastly more expensive bottles. The most interesting bit was when everyone tasted the same wine without knowing if it was a red or a white, and about half the guests chose wrong. Apparently, unless you are really an expert, there are plenty of varieties whose taste makes the color irrelevant. A fun DVD. I recommend it for people who like wine and would like to know a bit more about it. And of course, johns Cleese is just always a good bet.
I drink everything - red, white, pink, beige, tan, brown, you name it, although probably more reds than anything. My husband doesn’t care for white wines, although there have been a few late harvest or dessert whites that he has enjoyed. Since he favors reds, we seem to purchase more reds, and so I tend to drink more reds at home. But I’m constantly tasting all different kinds in school, at work functions, or whenever we hit the local wineries or wine bars for tastings.
I drink whatever I feel like drinking, although many times it does follow convention. I enjoy sampling classic pairings, and I enjoy experimenting with new ones, but there are definitely some guidelines I try to follow. I have had some food and wine pairings that have literally made me weak at the knees.
I honestly have not found a wine or wine style that I really don’t like yet, although I really do have a soft spot for sparkling wines.