🍷 Brut
Dry sparkling wine; the most common sweetness level in Champagne and cava.
Brut is the most common sweetness level for sparkling wine. Under European Union rules, brut has less than 12 grams of sugar per litre, so it tastes dry. Most Champagne, cava and many other sparkling wines, including German Sekt, are labelled brut.
The sweetness of a sparkling wine is set by dosage. After the second fermentation in bottle and removal of the sediment, a little liqueur, a mix of wine and sugar, is added. The amount of that liqueur decides whether the wine is brut or sweeter.
Brut has drier neighbours. Extra brut has no more than 6 grams of sugar per litre, and brut nature less than 3 grams, with no sugar added. Sweeter than brut is extra dry, at 12 to 17 grams per litre. The name is confusing: 'extra dry' sounds very dry but is sweeter than brut. The French word brut means 'raw' or 'unrefined'.
Links
- Previous step
- 🍷 Dosage
- Part of
- 🍷 Dosage
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine, 🗺️ Spanish wine, 🗺️ Italian wine, 🗺️ German wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Brut nature, 🍷 Extra brut, 🍷 Extra dry, 🍷 Champagne, 🍷 Dosage
Frequently asked questions
How much sugar is in brut?
Less than 12 grams per litre, which is why brut tastes dry.
Which is drier, brut or extra dry?
Brut is drier. Despite its name, extra dry has 12 to 17 grams of sugar per litre.
What is brut nature?
It is the driest sparkling wine: no sugar is added, and it has less than 3 grams per litre.
Similar
🍷 Brut nature · 🍷 Extra brut · 🍷 Sec · 🍷 Demi-sec · 🍷 Doux · 🍷 Extra dry
⚠️ 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.
Sources
- Wikipedia (en)
- EU Delegated Regulation 2019/33 (labelling, sugar terms)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Wine
- Comité Champagne
- Deutsches Weininstitut