🍷 Demi-sec
Medium-sweet sparkling wine.
Demi-sec is the French term for medium-sweet sparkling wine. The word means “half-dry”, but the scale for sparkling wine is shifted, so demi-sec is clearly sweet. Under EU rules it has 32 to 50 grams of sugar per litre.
Sweetness is added at the very end. After the second fermentation and removal of the sediment, the bottle is topped up with the dosage, a mix of wine and sugar. More sugar in the dosage means a sweeter wine. The driest levels are brut and extra brut, followed by extra sec and sec, then demi-sec, with doux the sweetest.
Demi-sec appears in French, Italian and Spanish wine: in Champagne, Crémant, some Cava and Prosecco. Two centuries ago sweet sparkling wine was the norm, and dry brut became fashionable later. Today demi-sec is usually served with dessert, fruit or pastries rather than as an aperitif.
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Dosage
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine, 🗺️ Italian wine, 🗺️ Spanish wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Sec, 🍷 Doux
Frequently asked questions
Is demi-sec dry or sweet?
It is a medium-sweet sparkling wine. Despite the name “half-dry”, it has 32 to 50 grams of sugar per litre.
How is demi-sec different from brut?
Brut has less than 12 grams of sugar per litre and tastes almost dry. Demi-sec is noticeably sweeter.
What goes well with demi-sec?
Desserts, fruit and pastries, because the wine's sweetness holds up next to sweet food.
Similar
🍷 Brut nature · 🍷 Extra brut · 🍷 Extra dry · 🍷 Doux · 🍷 Sec · 🍷 Brut
⚠️ 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