Switching from White to Red wine, assistance needed

Try a Spanish Tempranillo.

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Switching from White to Red wine

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We call that "5pm" at our house.

Pick up a couple of ~$20 bottles of Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. Good light reds that I think make a great jumping off point.

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I would start with a fruit forward Pinot Noir

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This is better advice.

Willamette may be too stinky for a beginner.

You probably want to at least initially start out with more California or at least New World reds. Many of those are going to have the sweetness that I think you could be looking for and there are loads of affordable options. Just swing through a wine aisle and grab a few bottles. Try a lot to learn what you like and more importantly what you don't like. For instance, I find a lot of California Pinots to be overly fruit and heavy for the grape (most likely because a lot of them are pumped up with extracts and other grapes).

However, have you thought of also branching out in the white world? Given the flavor profile you are after, you might want to give some Alsatian or German Rieslings a try on the white scale. Or a Viognier from the Rhone.

My wife and I don't drink a lot of wine but we really like Meiomi Pinot Noir.

You should be able to find it for less than $20/bottle.

Zin: Pretty bold for a white wine drinker.

I'll add to the Pinot and Tempranillo consensus.

Rombauer Zinfandel. Alexanders on Highland Rd carries it as does Calandros and Harvest in Dutchtown. The wife and I discovered the Rombauer winery on one of our Napa CA trips. The winery is north of Napa in St. Helena and they make some of the best wines i've ever tasted. The Chardonnay is exceptional (buttery) as is the Cab and especially the Zin. A bottle of Zin runs around $32. The Char is around $38 and the Cab goes at $45-50. I highly recommend any of those.

Thanks everyone!

I will give those a try, definitely better than just blindly picking a bottle at the store (as I did the other day and we didn't care for it).