🍷 Dry wine
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 is called 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 off-dry (medium-dry) wine, with a little more sugar. In Germany and Austria, dry wine is labelled 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.
What it includes
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Residual sugar
- Part of
- 🍷 Types of wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Medium-dry wine, 🍷 Residual sugar, 🍷 Trocken
Frequently asked questions
How much sugar is in dry wine?
Under EU rules no more than 4 g per litre, or up to 9 g per litre when acidity is high.
Why is it called dry wine?
Because almost no sugar is left: yeast has turned it into alcohol. Here 'dry' simply means 'not sweet'.
What is dry wine in German?
German and Austrian labels use the word trocken for dry wine.
Similar
🍷 Medium-sweet wine · 🍷 Wine cooler · 🍷 Varietal wine · 🍷 Sacramental wine · 🍷 Vin cuit · 🍷 Residual sugar
⚠️ 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): Sweetness of wine
- EU Delegated Regulation 2019/33 (labelling, sugar terms)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Wine