Is it sweet?

Sweet wine versus dry wine is one of least understood and potentially most confusing aspects of wine. Much of this comes from the way our taste buds and our brain work together. Fruit is sweet. Take a bite of most any fruit — from berries to peaches and apples and even citrus — and the unique flavors of the fruit register in our brains through our taste buds, but the sugar content of the fruit registers also. In fact, human taste buds only register four flavors: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Smell a freshly cut peach, though, and many of the same “flavors,” including sweetness, register in our sense of smell. The short version is when we smell or taste fruit, our brains go to sweet.

But when it comes to wine, is it sweet? Most wine consumers when asked will say they prefer their wines dry, although appreciation of sweet wines is understated in my opinion. Preferences for dry wines will sometimes cause wine drinkers to overlook wines that really are dry, because fruit flavors are so prominent in certain wines. The technical separation between sweet wine and dry wine has to do with residual sugar. When wine is fermented, yeast consumes the natural sugars in the grapes, producing alcohol. As the alcohol increases, it will eventually kill off the yeast cells (depending on the strain of yeast), halting fermentation. Fermentation can also be stopped by the introduction of certain chemicals that kill the yeast cells. If there is sugar left in the wine after the yeasts stop fermenting, that is referred to as “residual sugar."

If the sugar levels in the wine are below the human palate threshold for detecting sugar, they are referred to as dry wines, if it is above, the wine is referred to as sweet or off-dry, depending on how much sugar is left. Palate threshold varies for all of us; I am fairly sensitive to sugar, so I pick it up at about 1 percent residual sugar. In general though, most of us start to detect true sugar between 1.5 percent and 2 percent.

Time to add in another complicating factor, acid. Fruit acids tend to balance out the sugar we detect, leading wine drinkers at times to describe a wine as dry, even though there is some fairly obvious sugar content to the wine. Confused yet? Wait, it gets worse. Certain varietals are so naturally fruity that even the most knowledgeable wine consumer can’t help but describe the wine as sweet, despite it being fermented bone dry.

Pinot Noir, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel and Sangiovese are all grape varietals that are so naturally fruit-driven in their presentation on our palates that folks refer to them as sweet. Reducing or eliminating oak barrel aging makes the fruit comes out even more; and, you guessed it, even more of us can’t help but describe the wines as sweet.

What is most important, though, is whether or not you like a wine. Whether it is technically sweet or just too fruity for you, your preferences are what your preferences are. Or for those of us who like a bit more fruit on our wine — or actual sugar in them if a wine doesn’t give us enough of that fruit flavor due to too much acid, or too much oak or tannin — it is not the right wine for us.

Here are a few criteria that do not indicate whether a wine is sweet or dry:

Bottle shape: We all know the tall, skinny bottles that are used for wines from Alsace, and Provence. They are used for whites and reds alike, many times holding Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and even Pinot Noir. And they also hold both sweet wine and dry wine, so don’t avoid a wine just for the tall, skinny bottle.

Wine color: Pink wine or rosè, some of the very best rosès both domestically and from overseas are fermented completely dry. There are reds too from Northern Italy and other appellations that are made with sugar left in them. While many folks assume Champagne and other sparkling wines are sweet from how the effervescence is created in the wine, when they are designated as Brut or Extra Brut they are bone dry.

For wine consumers, whether you like your wine sweet or dry, fruity or not fruity, choices abound. And many times the sugar content of the wine may fool you. Stop by the shop to learn the difference and find alternatives spanning the sweetness and fruity spectrums that you will enjoy.

If there is a topic you would like to read about, or if you have questions on wine, you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com, or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d’Alene Press.

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George Balling is co-owner (with his wife Mary Lancaster) of the dinner party, a wine and tabletop décor shop by Costco in Coeur d’Alene. George has also worked as a judge in many wine competitions, and his articles are published around the country. You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles and other great wine tips by friending us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.