Knowing The Difference Between Dry white Wine And Sweet

Not everyone is a wine connoisseur and this can be a dilemma when you have to choose dry white wine for a special occasion. Yes, it is true that you can see on the bottle labels whether it is a dry white wine or a sweet wine, but is that enough knowledge to choose the perfect wine? To make a knowledgeable choice when you purchase dry white wine, you need to understand the basics of white wine. In a nutshell dry white wine stands on the opposite of the taste spectrum from sweet white wine.

Between dry white wine and the sweet variety, you find medium sweet, medium, medium dry and off-dry types. Thus, dry white wine is a wine that is not very sugary. The sugar rich sweet white wines are known all round as dessert wines and can contain up to 25 percent residual sugars. In total contrast dry white wine contains at the maximum 1 percent of residual sugars and is knows as Brut. Most people who love making up a white wine Sangria recipe prefer using a dry white wine. This is because it does not overpower the sweetness of the fruits used in the Sangria recipe. Therefore using dry wine gives a more balanced and refreshing Sangria.

Process Of Dry white Wine

The harvesting time and fermentation process is what splits sweet white wine from dry white wine. The longer fruit is left on the vine to mature, the higher the sugar levels of the fruit become. Thus vintners will leave the grapes on the vine until totally matured if they want to make sweet white wine. The fully matured grapes will also have a lower acidity level. So, when vintners want to produce dry white wine they will harvest it much earlier, thus stopping the sugar levels from rising very high.

When the less matured grapes go through the fermentation process there is not much sugar left afterwards. That is why dry white wine only contains approximately 1 percent of sugar. Understanding exactly what makes a wine dry or sweet does not resolve the dilemma of what white wine to purchase. What you have is the understanding that you choose different categories of white wine according to sweetness. Thus, when asked to purchase dry white wine, you have the choice between medium dry, off-dry and dry. As to what your preference will be; there is really only one way to find that out and that is to actually taste each of the different categories of dry white wine.