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Red WineWhite WineRosé WineSparkling WineMixed Wine$30+$20-$30$15-$20TrioSixTwelveBold Southern Italian RedsLocal Summer Picks MixFresh Pink PicksItalian Thirst-QuenchersView AllBROWSE ALL MIXED CASESRed WineWhite WineRosé WineChampagne & SparklingDessert WineArgentinaAustraliaChileFranceItalyNew ZealandPortugalSouth AfricaSpainUSABordeauxBurgundyCaliforniaLoire ValleyMendozaPiedmontProseccoRhôneRiojaTuscanyVenetoCabernet SauvignonChardonnayMalbecMerlotMontepulcianoMoscatoPinot GrigioPinot NoirRieslingSauvignon BlancSyrah/ShirazZinfandelLow AlcoholAward Winning Red WinesAward Winning White WinesTop Rated Red WinesTop Rated White Wines90 Point WineDry Red WineFine WinesBiodynamicOrganic GrapesVeganVegetarianBROWSE ALL WINESClassic Red & White WinesClassic Red WinesPremium Red WinesBirthdayThank YouAnniversaryWeddingEntertainingThe Gracious HostFriends & NeighborsColleaguesCouplesBoutique Bubbly SixWine & Cheese Lovers' Gift SetBest-Selling Reds SixBest-Selling Whites SixDartington DecanterSlate Cheese BoardCrystal Champagne FlutesRechargeable CorkscrewFrench-Style Steak KnivesBROWSE ALL GIFTSWine Ratings ExplainedWine Longevity After OpeningUnderstanding Wine AcidityThe Role of Sulfites in WineTypes of Wine GlassesView AllGift Ideas For Wine LoversWine Tasting GuideAre Wine Clubs Worth It?Wine Club BenefitsAerating Red Wine / Why To Aerate Wine?Vegan Wine InsightsChoosing Wine for DessertsBest Wine with HamWhat Wine Goes Well with Pizza?Pairing Wine with SushiBest Wine with PastaPairing Wine with ChickenWhat Wine goes with Tacos?Turkey and Wine PairingView AllPride Blend: Support the American LGBTQ+ MuseumNY Jets Uncorked Legacy WineView AllBROWSE ALL ARTICLES
Red WineWhite WineRosé WineSparkling WineMixed Wine$30+$20-$30$15-$20Bold Southern Italian RedsLocal Summer Picks MixFresh Pink PicksItalian Thirst-QuenchersView AllGift ShopGift CardBROWSE ALL MIXED CASESRed WineWhite WineRosé WineChampagne & SparklingDessert WineArgentinaAustraliaChileFranceItalyNew ZealandPortugalSouth AfricaSpainUSABordeauxBurgundyCaliforniaLoire ValleyMendozaPiedmontProseccoRhôneRiojaTuscanyVenetoCabernet SauvignonChardonnayMalbecMerlotMontepulcianoMoscatoPinot GrigioPinot NoirRieslingSauvignon BlancSyrah/ShirazZinfandelLow AlcoholAward Winning Red WinesAward Winning White WinesTop Rated Red WinesTop Rated White Wines90 Point WineDry Red WineFine WinesBiodynamicOrganic GrapesVeganVegetarianBROWSE ALL WINES
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Red WineWhite WineRosé WineSparkling WineMixed Wine$30+$20-$30$15-$20TrioSixTwelveBold Southern Italian RedsLocal Summer Picks MixFresh Pink PicksItalian Thirst-QuenchersView AllBROWSE ALL MIXED CASESRed WineWhite WineRosé WineChampagne & SparklingDessert WineArgentinaAustraliaChileFranceItalyNew ZealandPortugalSouth AfricaSpainUSABordeauxBurgundyCaliforniaLoire ValleyMendozaPiedmontProseccoRhôneRiojaTuscanyVenetoCabernet SauvignonChardonnayMalbecMerlotMontepulcianoMoscatoPinot GrigioPinot NoirRieslingSauvignon BlancSyrah/ShirazZinfandelLow AlcoholAward Winning Red WinesAward Winning White WinesTop Rated Red WinesTop Rated White Wines90 Point WineDry Red WineFine WinesBiodynamicOrganic GrapesVeganVegetarianBROWSE ALL WINESClassic Red & White WinesClassic Red WinesPremium Red WinesBirthdayThank YouAnniversaryWeddingEntertainingThe Gracious HostFriends & NeighborsColleaguesCouplesBoutique Bubbly SixWine & Cheese Lovers' Gift SetBest-Selling Reds SixBest-Selling Whites SixDartington DecanterSlate Cheese BoardCrystal Champagne FlutesRechargeable CorkscrewFrench-Style Steak KnivesBROWSE ALL GIFTSWine Ratings ExplainedWine Longevity After OpeningUnderstanding Wine AcidityThe Role of Sulfites in WineTypes of Wine GlassesView AllGift Ideas For Wine LoversWine Tasting GuideAre Wine Clubs Worth It?Wine Club BenefitsAerating Red Wine / Why To Aerate Wine?Vegan Wine InsightsChoosing Wine for DessertsBest Wine with HamWhat Wine Goes Well with Pizza?Pairing Wine with SushiBest Wine with PastaPairing Wine with ChickenWhat Wine goes with Tacos?Turkey and Wine PairingView AllPride Blend: Support the American LGBTQ+ MuseumNY Jets Uncorked Legacy WineView AllBROWSE ALL ARTICLES
Red WineWhite WineRosé WineSparkling WineMixed Wine$30+$20-$30$15-$20Bold Southern Italian RedsLocal Summer Picks MixFresh Pink PicksItalian Thirst-QuenchersView AllGift ShopGift CardBROWSE ALL MIXED CASESRed WineWhite WineRosé WineChampagne & SparklingDessert WineArgentinaAustraliaChileFranceItalyNew ZealandPortugalSouth AfricaSpainUSABordeauxBurgundyCaliforniaLoire ValleyMendozaPiedmontProseccoRhôneRiojaTuscanyVenetoCabernet SauvignonChardonnayMalbecMerlotMontepulcianoMoscatoPinot GrigioPinot NoirRieslingSauvignon BlancSyrah/ShirazZinfandelLow AlcoholAward Winning Red WinesAward Winning White WinesTop Rated Red WinesTop Rated White Wines90 Point WineDry Red WineFine WinesBiodynamicOrganic GrapesVeganVegetarianBROWSE ALL WINES

Understanding Sweet Wine

While some wines may seem sweet on the palate because of their naturally ripe fruit flavors or crème brûlée-like characteristics earned from time in oak, sweet wine is a separate stylistic category determined by the amount of residual sugar in any given bottling.

Sweet wines can range from just a little sweet and palate pleasing, to honeyed and fruit-laden, to luxurious, fortified and dessert worthy.

Ahead, we provide a basic understanding of this delicious category.

What is a Sweet Wine, Really?

All wine starts out as naturally sweet grape juice. To become wine, yeast converts the juice’s natural sugars to alcohol via a process called fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, any sugar that remains is called residual sugar (RS), and its presence in the finished product is what ultimately determines a wine’s sweetness.

Any wine with a somewhat perceptible amount of RS can be a type of sweet wine, though the term is most often applied to expressions in which the RS is a dominate characteristic.

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How is Wine Sweetness Measured?

The sweetness of a wine is expressed as a ratio of weight to volume, usually in grams per liter (g/L) of residual sugar.

In the US, no standardized labelling scale has been established for sweetness. However, wines are typically thought to range from bone-dry to sweet.

The amount of RS in bone-dry wines usually fall between 0–1 g/L, a level barely detected by human taste buds. Any wine with 10g/L RS or less, a level still hardly perceptible on the palate, is typically considered dry. The term off-dry is used to describe wines with a tiny amount of detectable sugar, while medium-dry or medium-sweet are interchangeable terms used to talk about wines with distinct-but-not-overwhelming amounts of sugar to the taste.

A wine with 30g/L RS or more, in which the presence of sugar dominates the flavor profile, is thought to be officially sweet. This category is used primarily for dessert wines. If a wine is so sweet that it’s noticeably viscous and sticky, it is sometimes referred to as very sweet.

Why Do Some Wines Taste Sweeter Than Others?

Although residual sugar is the primary factor that defines a wine’s sweetness, other elements can influence our perception of sweetness on the palate, including acidity, tannins, alcohol and flavor or fruitiness.

Acidity—the element that keeps wine tasting fresh and vibrant, and supplies a tangy, bright or sour taste—is the natural foil of sweetness. Essential for the overall balance of a wine, acidity can enhance or mask the perception of sweetness. A wine with low acidity but high sugar levels may taste overly sweet, while a wine with high acid and low sugar could seem sharp. A wine with high levels of both will deliver a more concentrated, powerful sweet experience.

Like acidity, tannins—natural compounds from grape skins and oak barrel aging—offer a counterpoint to sweetness.

The reason is twofold: For one, some tannins are sensed as bitterness (the opposite of sweet) by the tongue’s taste receptors. But for another, tannins are felt more than they are tasted, binding to the mucins in saliva that keep your mouth slick, and creating a dry, astringent sensation. This means abundant tannins can mask RS in wine and a high level of RS can soften the feeling of tannins.

Conversely, high levels of alcohol magnify the perception of sweetness, as alcohol itself is naturally sweet on the palate. A higher level of alcohol by volume (ABV) can also make a wine seem more viscous, which is another factor sometimes perceived as sweetness.

Because our brains naturally associate fruit qualities with sugar, robust ripe or tropical fruit flavors (as well as some characteristics earned from time in oak like caramel, vanilla or brioche, for the same reason) can trick our palate into recognizing sweetness, too. Intense fruity aromas work similarly, as taste and smell are tied intrinsically.

How is Sweet Wine Made?

A wine’s sweetness is determined by its amount of RS, the sugar that remains after fermentation is complete. While most wines are fermented to dryness (that is, without enough RS to be detected by the palate), there are a few ways a winemaker can tinker with the process to create a sweet product.

One way is for the winemaker to stop fermentation before it’s complete.

Arguably, the most historically significant way is to stop fermentation by adding a neutral distilled grape spirit to the wine, a process known as fortification, to abruptly raise the ABV. The yeast, which cannot survive above 15% ABV, dies off, and leaves an abundance of RS in its wake.

Fermentation can also be halted by the addition of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or by chilling the wine almost to the point of freezing. In both instances, the yeast essentially begins to hibernate, and the winemaker can filter it out before it’s had the chance to consume all the sugars. Unlike fortification, these methods produce wines that are typically much lower in alcohol.

imageAlt

Another way to produce sweet wine is for the winemaker to add a sweetening agent near the end of fermentation, a technique called back sweetening. This is common in both high-quality production (in Germany, where winemakers add a bit unfermented and stabilized sweet grape juice called Süssreserve) and in high-volume lower quality production (in which a concentrated solution of grape sugar called rectified concentrated grape must is added to enrich the final product).

Alternatively, a winemaker can produce sweet wine by using grapes cultivated intentionally to be extremely rich in sugar.

For instance, they can use grapes left on the vine long after they’ve ripened, concentrating their sugars and eventually turning them to raisins, a technique known as passerillage in France and often labelled as Late Harvest. Or they can use healthy harvested grapes that have been left in the sun to dehydrate, which concentrates their sugars, a process called appassimento in Italian.

In colder climates, they can use grapes left to freeze on the vine, quickly harvested and pressed while still frozen. The frozen water within the grape’s pulp remains in the press and the sugar content of the resulting juice becomes intensely concentrated. This is used to make Ice Wine in Canada and Eiswein in Germany.

Or, they can use grapes infected by Botrytis Cinerea, a naturally occurring fungus known commonly as Noble Rot or simply botrytis, and labelled as botrytised on the bottle. Under the right climactic conditions, the fungus punctures the grapes’ skins and creates holes through which water evaporates and ultimately causes the fruits’ acids, sugars and flavors to concentrate. The spread of noble rot is never uniform and is hardly ever predictable.

Common Types of Sweet Wine to Know

Moscato

The Italian term for the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains or Muscat Blanc grapes from which its made, Moscato wine is best known the sweet and fragrant, lightly sparkling, peach and orange blossom accented wines of Asti and Moscato d’Asti in Piedmont. To produce Moscato, the winemaker will chill the wine before it has finished fermenting, then filter out the yeast to ensure an abundance of RS persists in the final product. Because fermentation was halted, these expressions are typically low in alcohol.

Port

Port is a fortified wine from the Douro Valley in Portugal. To make port, the winemaker will halt fermentation by adding a neutral distilled grape spirit that increases the ABV and kills the yeasts that have been consuming the wine’s natural sugars. Though available in a range of styles, Port wines are often rich, robust and packed with flavors of ripe dark fruits, chocolate, caramel and spices.

Sauternes

Sauternes wine is a sweet wine named for the village near to Bordeaux, France, in which it is produced. Made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle grapes affected by noble rot, it is typically rich, honeyed and complex, with a vibrant acidity that stops the wine from being cloying.

Ice Wine

Also called Eiswine, Ice Wine is made from grapes left to freeze on the vine, and pressed while frozen. Intensely sweet yet balanced by a high acidity, it’s known for its concentrated flavors of tropical fruit, honey and citrus, and is notoriously challenging to produce.

How to Tell if a Wine is Sweet

The best way to know if a wine is sweet is to taste it, but there are a couple key packaging indicators that can help you work out if a wine is sweet or not.

Fortified wines, Ice Wines and Sauternes are typically packaged in specific bottles, which may be more or less than the standard 750ml wine bottle, and labelled specifically as their style. Though sold in a standard wine bottle, sweet wines created by the halting of fermentation—like Moscato—will usually have a lower ABV of 11% or less.

You can also look for words such as dulce, doux, süß, moelleux, passito, botrytised, semi secco, or recioto on the label, all of which could indicate a sweet wine in style.


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