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A Quick Guide to Wine Dryness: Why It Tastes Sweet When It Isn’t (and More)

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Having worked in wine for well over a decade, including countless hours in tasting rooms, I used to hear it all the time: Yuck, this is too sweet.

Little did the taster know, he was drinking a bone-dry Pinot Noir. As in, absolutely zero residual sugar and therefore no sweetness. They were likely just picking up riper, richer fruit notes typical of a warmer vintage or particular barrel regimen. So we wanted to settle one thing: What exactly is sweet wine, and what is dry in a wine?

A Quick Guide to Residual Sugar

In most red wines, there is little to no residual sugar — the amount of sugar left over after fermentation, when yeast is gobbling up sugar and turning it into alcohol. These wines ferment until dry (no sugar remaining) and then get pressed and, quite often, put to barrel.

With white wines, generally speaking, there is some room for residual sugar. It’s measured in grams per liter and can run anywhere from an off-dry Champagne with a touch of leftover sugar to a candy-sweet dessert wine or ice wine, with a whopping 300 grams/liter (or, 30% residual sugar content). It all depends on style and how the sugar interacts with the rest of the wine.

Essencia Royal Tokaji Wine Company Aszu Berries
Royal Tokaji Wine Company

(You can read more about the wine with the world’s highest amount of residual sugar, Royal Tokaji’s Essencia, here.)

Winemaker Matt Berson of Love & Squalor in the Willamette Valley considers it all a balancing act. He works closely with Riesling, a white grape known for producing beautiful wines spanning the sweetness spectrum. He says his Rieslings are all dry, but contain a smidge of sugar.

“If they didn’t, our customers would run screaming to their dentist,” Berson says. “You have to balance out that devious hit of acid with a hint of sweetness or the whole thing won’t balance.”

“It’s like a margarita. It’s no good without a splash of triple sec or simple syrup, he continues. “But with that little hint of sweet, man, you can drink them all night long.” Famed winemaker Ernst Loosen famously called Riesling the margarita of the wine world. He’s one of the biggest names in a place — the Mosel, along the French and German border — beloved for its Rieslings.

Because Riesling is primarily fruity, it can be mistaken for sweet, even while dry. “Ripe fruit flavors make our brain think of sweetness, and sugar is what our primitive brains are craving for our cave-person energy,” Berson says.

There’s a bravado to it all as well. But as any wise soul knows, there’s nothing wimpy about enjoying something with a little bit of sweetness. The Old World’s been at it for ages, with things like Port, Tokaji, Lambrusco, and more.

“Americans in particular are driving this dry thing into the ground, but we still consume oceans of soda, which has more sugar than any of the alcoholic beverages you’re demanding.”

For a handy wine dryness visual, check out this chart from the folks at Wine Folly.

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Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
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Next time you’re looking to wow friends with a bizarre drinks-related factoid, tell them this: Michigan is the nation’s sixth-largest producer of wine. For a state more recognized for its contributions to music, the automobile industry, and for some massive lakes, it can be a bit of a head-scratcher.
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Presently the state is set up with five different appellations: Lake Michigan Shore, Fennville, Leelanau Peninsula, Old Mission Peninsula, and the wonderfully named Tip of the Mitt. By recent estimates, some 150 producers exist over this span, specializing in Cab Franc, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Riesling, as well as a few others.
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Like Virginia and Texas, it’ll be interesting to see how Michigan wine culture comes of age. At the moment, it’s a growing industry with a fair amount of potential—one that will only get wiser and better as future generations take to the task of winemaking.
Some stops of note, should you find yourself in The Great Lakes State:

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There are more than just a few kinds of wine bottles out there. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of shape and the same amount of liquid. Other times, it’s a broad spectrum of volume sizes, from the petite and personal split to the ridiculously large Nebuchadnezzar, which holds roughly twenty regular bottles.
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When people think of Israel, they tend to think of an old, old place. When they think of Israeli wine, they tend to jump straight to Manischewitz. For shame. The Middle-Eastern country of more than nine million people boasts a surprisingly robust wine scene thanks to geographical diversity and a plethora of producers. Oh, and a lot of history, too. 
It’s fair to tie the ancient element to the wine scene. Israeli wine and viticulture is mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy, for Pete’s sake. Romans made special requests for the vintage versions of the stuff back in the day (shipped in amphora no less). What began as absorbed knowledge from the nearby Egyptians thousands of years ago is now its own sovereign winemaking world, built around added expertise and varietals introduced by the French in the 19th century.
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Our country has always had a pretty tight relationship with Israel. Politics aside, this administration is very much reflective of that. And because the sitting Prez doesn’t touch the stuff, that means more Israeli wine for you and me.
L’Chaim!
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