If you’re a newbie to the world of wines, you might find the sheer volume of wine varieties available utterly overwhelming. Among the literally thousands of wines out there, how do you determine what’s what? And how do you choose a good wine to try for the first time?
While people often confuse a red wine’s fruity flavor with it being sweet, a true mark of sweet red wine is its residual sugar.
- Sec (Dry): A dry wine with very little residual sugar
- Off-dry: Has residual sugar levels in the 0.6% to 1.4% range
- Demi-sec (Half dry): Medium-sweet wines with medium to high acidity, like Zinfandel
- Late Harvest: Made from grapes that are harvested later than usual (overripe grapes have concentrated and sweeter juice)
- Dessert: Sweet dessert wines with around 5-15% residual sugar
- Doux: Sweetest of Champagnes or sparkling wines, with over 50g of residual sugar per liter
