How do you know which wines are "DRY"?!
How do you know which wines are "DRY"?
Answers:
A basic guideline of checking alcohol % will help you to determine if a wine is dry or sweet. The lower the alcohol % the sweeter the wine. The higher the alcohol % the drier the wine. A wine can be higher in alcohol, but have a ripe fruit taste that will make it seem sweet. There are clues on labels to help determine this also, to name a few: demi-sec (semi-sweet), off dry, semi-dry, dolce (sweet). Alcohol %'s can range from say 7% to 14.5% or more.
Source(s):
wine store owner
There are dry wines and sweet wines. Obviously, sweet wines taste sweet. The dry wines do not taste sweet.
try a few and you will know.
A term that describes wine that isn't sweet; its French counterpart is SEC. In a fully dry wine, all the sugar has been converted to ALCOHOL during FERMENTATION. A medium-dry wine has a small amount of RESIDUAL SUGAR, but not enough to prevent the wine from being enjoyed with a meal. A wine with the barest hint of sweetness is referred to as OFF DRY.
Almost all red wine will be dry. most whites will be dry as well. dry refers to the sugar content in the wine. not if the wine has a "fruit flavor". a good example is syrah. a full bodied dry wine, that generally has a pronounced blue fruit characteristics. there are a few white wines and regions that do also generally produce sweet wine. riesling is very often dry. however, some regions and wineries make a riesling that does have a bit of sweetness. pretty much anything out of germany is going to have some sweetness. (Unless it says "trocken" which means dry, on the label). if you want a wine that really dries your mouth out, try some italian red wine.
All of the above answers are good. Here are some more rules of thumb.
Dessert wines usually contain the following words: port, sauternes, and late harvest.
Off-dry wines are more common. Riesling and Gewurztraminer are hard to get 100% dry and will usually taste slightly sweet.