Below is our sweetness chart of various wines. Our tasting study guide is due to be released next month.
And thanks to Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly for designing the chart.
Nothing in the way of "bone dry", like Australian Riesling for instance?
Pete,
We've come to the conclusion that bone dry is not an effective measurement. Human beings, by and large, really can't perceive sweetness under 2 g/l, so distinguishing between "dry" at 2 g/l and "bone dry" at less than 1 g/l is not really possible. "Bone dry" is a marker usually accorded to white wines with high levels of acid and low levels of sugar (i.e. Clare Riesling), or red wines with low levels of sugar and high levels of tannin, I think (Barolo).
So no more Bone dry descriptions??
Daniel, you are free to use whatever language you like. This chart simply represents the recommendations of the Guild of Sommeliers.
Cool. Thanks for the response, Matt. Bone dry is definitely an outlier. Add intense minerality to high acid and almost zero sugar, and, yes, you're probably looking at Clare Riesling and not much else.
It looks like the vertical axis here is roughly aligned light (top) to full (bottom) bodied. Is that the correct reading here?
No, there is no correlation between vertical axis and body.
Does the Guild prefer we call all wines with 5+ g/L RS off-dry? I can certainly think of some wines I've had, mostly Rieslings, with approximately 10 g/L that taste dry, even bone dry.
Personally, I think when you're talking about 5 g or more of RS you can taste it on the palate and so it should be noted as off-dry. I don't like the term bone dry because it is usually used by tasters to describe other factors than residual sugar.
Is there a good way to represent the various designations of Champagne? Or would "Zero" skew the scale? Nice work, Madeline, always like your renderings.
I think it should be noted that perception of dryness is very different with high acid varieties like Riesling. Trocken can be up to 9 g/L RS by law in Germany, but that's only if acid is within two grams of the RS (i.e. for a wine of 9 g/L RS, acid would have to be at least 7 grams to be labeled 'trocken'). I'm not sure I would identify a German Riesling that was 6 g/L with equal acidity as off-dry. It would taste pretty dry!
Awesome chart, by the way. Thanks to Madeline, and everyone at the Guild.
In regards to acid and sweetness: despite the fact that Riesling with 7 or 8 g/l of RS may taste quite dry, you can still taste the RS. German trocken at 7 or 8 g/l RS and Clare or Eden Valley Riesling at 2 to 3 g/l have a different feeling of fruity sweetness on the palate. This can be one element of a case when blind tasting dry European Riesling vs. dry Australian Riesling.
Thank you so much!!!
i believe its even more easy.!! =D
Bump