🍷 Dry wine
Also known as: dry, dry wines
Wine in which almost all the grape sugar has turned into alcohol.
Dry wine is wine in which yeast has turned almost all the grape sugar into alcohol. So it does not taste sweet; its flavour rests on acidity, fruit and, in red wines, tannin. Most wines in the world are dry.
Under European Union rules, a wine can be labelled "dry" when residual sugar is no more than 4 grams per litre. If the wine is very acidic, up to 9 grams is allowed, because high acidity masks sweetness. The next step up is "medium dry" (off-dry) wine, with a little more sugar. On German and Austrian labels the word for dry is trocken.
Dryness has nothing to do with colour: red, white, rosé and sparkling wines can all be dry. Sparkling wines use their own terms, such as brut. A dry wine can sometimes seem slightly sweet because of ripe fruity aromas, even though it holds almost no sugar. Only the residual sugar figure tells for sure.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Dry wine → kind of → 🍯 Wine sweetness → kind of → 🍷 Types of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Residual sugar
- Part of
- 🍯 Wine sweetness
- Related to
- 🍷 Amarone
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Medium-dry wine, 🍷 Residual sugar, 🍷 Trocken
Frequently asked questions
What does a dry wine taste like?
Not sweet: its flavour rests on acidity, fruit and, in red wines, tannin.
What is the difference between dry and off-dry wine?
Off-dry (medium dry) is the next step up, with a little more sugar.
Is it true that a fruity wine cannot be dry?
No. Ripe fruity aromas can make a dry wine seem slightly sweet even though it holds almost no sugar. Only the residual sugar figure tells for sure.
Comparisons
Guides
What to read next
- 🍷 Amarone — A dry red DOCG wine from Valpolicella near Verona, made from Corvina and Rondinella grapes dried for months.
- 🍷 Medium-dry wine — Wine with a light sweetness, where a little sugar remains.
Similar
🍷 Medium-sweet wine · 🍷 Residual sugar · 🍷 Medium-dry wine · 🍷 Halbtrocken · 🍷 Abboccato · 🍷 Feinherb
⚠️ 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.