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What Is Dry Wine?

Dry wine is wine that contains little or no sugar. They are the opposite of sweet wines. There are no laws in the United States that dictate how much sugar a dry wine may have, however, in the EU, a dry wine may have up to nine grams of sugar per liter. In practice, however, most dry wines contain much less.

For wine professionals and experts, who need to define dry wine even more specifically, say dry wines have no more than one gram per liter of sugar. They would refer to wine that has more than one gram, but less than nine, as “off-dry.” Wines that have no sugar at all are often referred to as being “bone dry.”

Dry wine contains much less sugar than many popular beverages.

  • Dry wine less than 9 grams per liter
  • Whole milk 50 grams per liter
  • Orange juice 90 grams per liter
  • Cola 100 grams per liter

Note that a generous, restaurant pour of wine is 187ml, one quarter of a standard bottle. So, a glass of dry wine will contain less than two grams of sugar.

What makes dry wine dry?

Wine is fermented grape juice. During fermentation, yeast consume the grape juice’s sugar and produce alcohol. Normally, for the majority of all wines, the winemaker “ferments until dry,” meaning all the sugar has been consumed and none is left in the finished wine.

Why does some dry wine taste sweet?

Sugar makes things taste sweet but so do some other things which are not sugar at all. So, a wine may be bone dry but still taste somewhat sweet.

Alcohol tastes sweet. Therefore, wines with alcohol percentages above 14% or so may be perceived as being a little sweet.

Glycerol (aka glycerin) is a trace by-product of fermentation and contributes viscosity to wine. It, too, can create the perception of slight sweetness.

Finally, very fruity wines may seem sweet. That’s because our brains associate fruit with sugar and expect fruity-tasting things to be sweet. When we drink a very fruity wine then, our brains may think “sweet” even if the wine is actually bone dry.

All these factors—high alcohol, notable glycerol, and substantial fruitiness—are most common in wines made from grapes grown in regions with long, warm, sunny growing seasons. Napa Valley, Barossa Valley and Priorat are just a few examples of regions with these conditions. All these factors together allow the grapes to become riper, which means they taste fruitier and have more sugar to convert into, resultingly more alcohol.

Why does some wine taste dry when it contains some sugar?

Our tongues perceive five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Some of those tastes can balance out the others in wine as well as in food. We add sugar to coffee to make it less bitter or to lemonade to make it less sour. A wine with very high acidity and some residual sugar, such as some German Rieslings, can taste drier than they actually are. Winemakers will often leave a little residual sugar in such a wine to balance a high acidity, so it’s less sour in our mouths. But that balancing of tastes works both ways. Adding acidity to something sugary reduces our perception of its sweetness as well.

Cooking with dry wine

For recipes that call for “dry wine,” you can use any dry wine of the color specified in the recipe. You don’t need to use expensive wine, but it should be wine that you’d be happy to drink. Generally, wines made without oak barrels work best, since cooking intensifies the oak flavors, and they can then overwhelm other flavors in the dish.

Types of dry wines

Most white, red, and rosé wines are dry. Many sparkling wines are dry too. A few fortified wines, such as Fino and Manzanilla Sherries, are dry, but most are not. Dessert wines are never dry.

It’s important to know that any grape variety may be made into a dry wine or a sweet wine. The variety doesn’t matter. Sweetness is a choice the winery makes, based on the style of wine they want to produce and what they think their customers will most enjoy. That said, for a variety of reasons, a handful of grape varieties are more often used to make “off-dry” or sweet wines, compared to others.

Dry White Wine

Wines made from common white grape varieties are generally dry and are considered dry white wines. For example, Albariño, Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris/Grigio, Sauvignon blanc, Torrontes, Vermentino, Viognier and most white wine grapes you’ve heard of, are most often made in a dry style. Though, again, certain wineries’ versions may be a little sweet to satisfy their particular customers.

Dry Red Wine

The vast majority of red wines on the shelf are considered dry red wines, though specific producers may choose to include a tiny amount of residual sugar to please their customers. Dessert wines are rarely but on occasion, made with red grapes. A few examples of red varieties that are almost always made into dry wines include Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Grenache, Nebbiolo, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Syrah, Tempranillo, Zinfandel and most others.

Dry Rosé

Many people associate rosé with sweet wines. However, most rosé wines, like those made from Pinot Noir, Cinsault, Grenache, or Merlot are actually quite dry. The notable exception is “white Zinfandel,” which is almost always sweet.

Dry Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wines range from completely dry to dessert sweet. To help consumers understand what a particular wine will be like, there are standard terms for sparkling wines of different sweetness levels.

The most common designation is “Brut.” Brut wines may contain anywhere from zero grams of sugar up to 12 grams per liter. Note that the high end of the spectrum for dry sparkling wine is above that for dry still wines. This is because sparkling wines, especially those made in the traditional method, tend to have a very high acidity and any residual sugar is intended to balance these high acidity levels.

Sparkling wines that have less than 6 grams per liter of sugar may be labeled as “Extra Brut.” The terms “Brut Nature,” “Brut Zero,” and “Sans Dosage” mean the sparkling wine has no more than three grams of sugar per liter and taste “bone dry.” Note that, somewhat confusingly, the terms, “Extra Dry” (12-17 grams of sugar per liter) and “Dry” (17-32 grams of sugar per liter) are actually some of the sweetest sparkling wines on the market today. Historically Champagne was made in a very sweet style, and the emergence of the dry styles started with “Dry” and “Extra Dry” with “Brut” perceived as a strong or “severe” style. But eventually the world’s palate became accustomed to these drier styles of Champagne and sparkling wine so that is what we now see most often on the global market.

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