What "Dry" Wine Means

Wine grapes, like any fruit, make sugar and are picked sweet, very sweet actually. It's quite the science to pick at just the right level of sweetness as the final alcohol level and many characteristics of the wine are at stake. Yeast converts this sugar into alcohol during fermentation.

Residual sugar, or RS, is the amount of sugar in a finished wine. A dry wine means there is no sugar left in the wine after fermentation. Or maybe it's no discernible sweetness. Or maybe where it's not discernible and the residual sugar does nothing to change the wine in any way. Most people will give you a zero sugar answer though I believe it's really one of the other choices.

You cannot pick up RS in wine that's below about 0.5%. Realistically, it's over 1% RS before most would notice the sweetness, depending on the wine. Depending on the wine? Yes, because acid and tannins might change what you perceive and make the wine seem drier. Acids are used to balance sweetness -- Coca Cola is very high in both sugar and acid. High tannins cause a mouth-drying sensation -- think black tea. High alcohol in a wine is perceived as sweetness as can be the fruit characteristics especially in a wine showing lots of bright red fruit. So there's actual sweetness and perceived sweetness.

People often say they want dry wine because all "great" wines (other than dessert wine) are completely dry. But then they will buy wine with residual sugar. Why? Because our senses of taste and smell are designed to love sweetness. Think of our ancient ancestors trying to decide if the fruits they encounter are ripe and safe to eat. It turns out because of the "all great wines are dry" mantra many winemakers are embarrassed to say, "My Chardonnay has 0.08% residual sugar" because now it sounds cheap and not a serious wine.

A little sweetness is okay in many wines. They key is balance. If you like the wine who cares if there's a little residual sugar in there?