What does Sweetness mean?

Sweetness states how sweet a wine is, in categories such as dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet, based on the wine's residual sugar.

Also known as: Sweetness level, Dry, medium, sweet

Sweetness describes how sweet a wine is and is given in categories rather than exact figures. For still wine the EU uses dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet, and the limits are based on how much residual sugar the wine contains.

A dry wine has no more than 4 g/l of sugar, or up to 9 g/l when acidity is close to the sugar level. Medium dry goes up to 12 g/l, medium sweet up to 45 g/l, and sweet is anything above that, such as Sauternes, Tokaji Aszú or a German Beerenauslese. Sparkling wine has its own scale: brut nature, extra brut, brut, extra dry, sec, demi-sec and doux. Note that extra dry is sweeter than brut.

How sweet a wine tastes does not depend on sugar alone. High acidity, tannin and bubbles make sweetness feel less obvious, while ripe fruit and high alcohol can make a dry wine seem slightly sweet. That is why a riesling on the edge of medium dry can still taste dry.

On the wine page sweetness gives a quick guide to the wine's style, and residual sugar shows the exact figure behind it.