🍷 Dolce
Also known as: sweet Italian wine
The Italian word for sweet wine.
Dolce is the Italian word for 'sweet'. On a label it means a sweet wine with a lot of residual sugar.
On an Italian label dolce is the sweetness term. For still wine under EU rules it means more than 45 g/l of sugar, while sparkling wine uses a different scale, where dolce means over 50 g/l. It is the Italian counterpart of the French doux and the Spanish dulce.
The Italian sweetness scale has other steps too. Secco is dry, abboccato is slightly sweet, amabile is medium sweet, and dolce is the sweetest. The sweetness usually comes from the grapes, when fermentation is stopped or the berries are dried beforehand.
Many Italian wines are sweet: dessert passito wines from dried grapes, Moscato d'Asti, Brachetto d'Acqui and Recioto. The word dolce appears on bottles of Italian wine and tells you what to expect from the taste. Their strength varies, from a light 5–7% to 15% and above.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Dolce → kind of → 🍷 Sweet wine → kind of → 🍷 Types of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Sweet wine
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ Italian wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Amabile, 🍷 Sweet wine
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that dolce is the only sweetness word on an Italian label?
No. The scale also has secco for dry, abboccato for slightly sweet and amabile for medium sweet; dolce is the sweetest.
How much sugar does a still dolce wine have?
More than 45 g/l under EU rules.
Which Italian wines are often dolce?
Moscato d'Asti is one example.
Similar
🍷 Süß · 🍷 Abboccato · 🍷 Medium-sweet wine · 🍷 Col fondo · 🍷 Brachetto d'Acqui · 🍷 Marsala Vergine
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.