Brut? Dry? Extra Dry? Brut Zero? Brut Nature? Doux? Demi-sec? The words they use to describe sparkling wine sweetness make no sense. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that. I can, however, help you understand them. So what is V is for Vino?
It’s the first "The Show to Pair with Your Wine" where you get to WATCH. LEARN, DRINK. You can watch our show all about wine, and then get the wine from the show delivered to your door. Plus, the wine and recipe cards available at visforvino.com. It’s like virtual wine tasting!
WATCH Join Vince your personal sommelier (a.k.a. smart wine guy) as he tours a new region each month. You’ll meet the featured winemaker, see the region, learn the grapes and wine topics, and cook a meal with a local chef that will pair perfectly.
LEARN Learn different wine topics in each episode: from "what is tannin" to "how to order wine in a restaurant". Plus, get the wine and recipe cards from each episode on www.visforvino.com
DRINK What kind of club would this be without booze? You can purchase the wine we feature on the show from months featured region/winemaker delivered to your door, so you can drink along with us! It’s like virtual wine tasting!
ON THIS CHANNEL You can watch full episodes, or get snippets of the V is for Vino show: learning how-to cook a great recipe or two, exploring new white wine, red wine, and wine topics, as well as the vine and wine world.
Welcome to the V is for Vino Nerd Lab. We take complicated wine topics and make them simple.
Today we're talking about sparkling wine sweetness. Sparkling wine sweetness. First off,
we're only talking about sparkling wine today. Still wine sweetness is a whole other nerd lab.
So why make sparkling wine sweet at all? Well, there's the obvious reason. Sometimes wines that
are sweet taste nice and pair better with spicy foods or desserts. But the less obvious reason is
this. Sparkling wines tend to be extremely aesthetic and a little bit of sugar can go a
long way in making a sparkling wine more balanced. Think of it like putting sugar on a tart grapefruit
to make it a bit more palatable. We didn't reduce the acidity of the grapefruit. We simply balanced
it out with the sugar. A lot of times the sugar added to sparkling wine is imperceptible. It
doesn't make the wine sweet. It simply puts it in line with the acidity and makes a smoother wine.
Sparkling wine sweetness comes from something called a dosage. How much of this dosage is added
determines the sweetness level, which is measured in grams per liter. About the labeling system.
Most sparkling wine all over the world follows the same rules when it comes to labeling their
sparkling wines. But the bad news? The words used are a bit counterintuitive. Let's start at the
bottom. Brut Nature, which is zero to three grams per liter and means zero or close to zero added
sugar. These wines are bone dry. Next, we get the Extra Brut or zero to six grams per liter, which
yes, on paper can be slightly sweeter, but this wine is still incredibly dry. Then we get to Brut,
which you've probably seen many times before. The reason being is that Brut allows for a whole
lot of wiggle room, zero to 12 grams per liter. And still know that this wine will probably taste
very dry. Now here's where things get confusing. We move on to extra dry, which is 12 to 17 grams
per liter and dry, which is 17 to 32 grams per liter. Even though these wines are called dry,
which in still wines we use to describe no sugar. In sparkling wines, extra dry and dry actually
mean a little sweet. I know. It's at extra dry where things start to taste a bit smoother and
fruitier and a hint of sweet and at dry where you'll get some noticeable sweetness. Our next two
are Demi Sec and Deux. These wines are definitely dessert wines, noticeably sweet. And when we're
talking about Prosecco, you'll typically only see them labeled as Brut, Extra Dry and Dry
because Prosecco is already fairly fruity. So an extra dry Prosecco is going to taste
even sweeter than an extra dry Champagne. And while all this seem like a whole lot of sugar,
consider this. Cola has about 106 grams per liter, which is way higher than even the sweetest
sparkling wines. And the difference between a glass of dry wine and a glass of sweet wine
is only about 30 calories or so. So if you're looking for places to cut calories,
consider cutting out the dessert and grabbing a glass of sparkling wine instead. I hope today's
Nerd Lab explained a little bit about sparkling wine sweetness. And as always, keep geeking out.
