You can keep the maror and your bitter herbs… just lay on the charoset. I love the stuff, especially caked on a big slab of matza. The only rule (from a kosher point of view) is that it has to resemble the mortar used by our enslaved ancestors to bond bricks together. One of my guests at this year’s seder said “If the mortar then tasted as good as the charoset I am eating now, I would have licked it out from between those bricks.” High praise indeed!
Any red wine will do if you don’t have the traditional sweet stuff. Just be prepared to add a little sugar to compensate.