🍷 Dolce
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.
Under EU rules, a still wine labelled dolce has more than 45 g/l of sugar. Sparkling wines use a different scale: dolce means over 50 g/l. It is the same as the French word 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.
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Sweet wine
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ Italian wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Amabile, 🍷 Sweet wine
Frequently asked questions
What does dolce mean on a wine bottle?
It is a sweet wine: over 45 g/l of sugar in still wine, over 50 g/l in sparkling wine.
How is dolce different from amabile?
Amabile is medium sweet, while dolce is sweet, with much more sugar.
Which Italian wines are dolce?
For example, many passito wines, Moscato d'Asti and Brachetto d'Acqui.
Similar
🍷 Süß · 🍷 Abboccato · 🍷 Medium-sweet wine · 🍷 Quality aromatic sparkling wine · 🍷 Col fondo · 🍷 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.
Sources
- Wikipedia (en)
- EU Delegated Regulation 2019/33 (labelling, sugar terms)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Wine