Trying to cut down on beer and move to red wine instead. I am not a connoisseur and not looking to win face in front of my Chinese friends, but I just want to get a bit tipsy during the freezing nights of Spring City. Are there any recommendable brands or places in the north that sell affordable red wine that is not bitter? (searched, but too lazy to read 15 line posts with two words worth of information)

Although you like red - try the german white rieslings. They're almost sweet (sugar cuts the bitterness - eg lemonade) and they're lower in alcohol content than the French, Italian, and American wines (not to mention Australian, New Zealand, South African, South American, etc ad infinitum). Since they're not as famous as the foreign brands - fraudulent rieslings are significantly lower AND much less expensive than their highly touted reds (and yes - you can drink white wine with red meats - since we're not avant garde connoisseurs (I hate spelling that word)).

If you're in the Beichen area - stroll around the prolific private wine stores. Chat up the owner(s) if possible and avoid stores and generally stupid staff that try to upsell/upmarket crap. Check out their brands, do a little research on your brands then taste away until you find a few of your favorite palate pleasers.

A good way to tell if a wine store has genuine import product as opposed to crap is the labels. Look for labels such as Gran/Grand/Grande Reserve/Vin etc - these labels USUALLY indicate winery hold-backs because of higher quality runs and usually carry special labels (aka Gran Reserv or similar spelling to imply euro-elegance). Also - words related to "Private Reserve" are other indicators of winery "holdbacks". This is (or was) international standard as opposed to those idiotic Chinese labels (black label, white label) trying to pretend to be upscale. That doesn't impress anyone except the uninitiated. This information from my buddy who runs a popular bar & grill in California - not that that's any indication of elegance.

Finally check labels, then check taobao.com (sort by price) so you know the actual going consumer rate as opposed to 200-800% markups for the un-initiated. Some of the taobao stores even have little blurbs on how to spot fake labels, bottles, etc. Surf some wine connoisseur sites (google - if you can get to it - will usually rank the higher hit rate sites at the top - but beware those that increase their "popularity" by paying google to be top 5-10).

The "good" sites will have a list of the major labels, vintage, and user ratings/rankings/reviews. One other point - wines taste differently depending on what you've been doing, eating, or smoking. So you can have lunch wines, dinner wines, apertif(?) wines, first bottle versus second and third bottle wines, going to bed wine, I've got the flu wine, etc ad infinitum. It can be a very personal culinary art form.

I used to be a wine gulper. If you are not wanting to impress anyone, then just buy cheap and find a wine that you find to your taste.
Metro is in the North. I found a few drinkable wines under 50RMB. I tended to go for the Chillean and Argentinian, but some of the French not bad. An old French friend of mine used to buy a Chinese wine at 20rmb, and was happy with it.

Would say don't go to the wine stores the prices are ridiculous. Metro has a few decent wines but prices have gone up. Recommendations would be Camino De Castilla the Tempranillo is decent for around 60 and the Crianza 2006 is worth it for 90. The Castallarre is Spanish wine with white and redish orange label for 30 is drinkable and the Raimat for 95 or so is decent. Also there is an Alsacian riesling for 80 in a green bottle with yellow label. Good luck.

Thanks all. Very useful information!