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| Jul 29, 2010 - 06:46 PM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
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Well, I’m in Wine Guy mourning this week. I have on my black armband and have sprinkled ashes on my head. I was made aware last week that lots of supposedly “dry” wines have a non-trivial amount of sugar still in them. Ahh!
Yes, it’s true. My little sister mentioned something to me about people denigrating Yellow Tail wines because they have sugar in them. I let her know in pompous and uncertain terms that they couldn’t have sugar in them because they were dry wines. Was I wrong!
Turns out that lots of the more mass-produced wines (red and white) have residual sugar in them to make them sweeter and more attractive to those who don’t like dry wines or possibly to cover up defects in the wine, or both. There’s nothing illegal or even unethical about this, but I wish they’d put it on their labels.
In general, a wine with a residual sugar percentage of more than about 0.25 is not considered dry. Wines in the 0.3-0.4 percent range will have their acidity (tanginess) softened a bit without really adding sweetness. Wines in the 0.5-0.7 percent range will taste slightly sweet, those in the 0.9-1.1 percent range will taste sweet, and those above that will taste really sweet.
Yellow Tail Merlot contained 0.5 percent sugar, a Sutter Home Chardonnay 0.9, and a Carlo Rossi Chablis 1.6. You can see the full list I was browsing at the Beekman Wines & Liquors website: http://www.beekmanwine.com/prevtopbh.htm.
There are many fine, sweet wines in the world. They’re supposed to be sweet, and everyone expects them to be sweet. Rieslings are perhaps the most common example. I’m talking about wines that are traditionally fermented to dryness and aren’t “supposed” to be sweet.
There are two primary ways a wine remains sweet: 1) Fermentation is stopped before the yeasts eat all the sugar or, 2) Unfermented juice (with all its natural sugar) is added back to the completely fermented, dry wine.
I have to believe they are practicing method No. 2. Method No. 1 would probably be too expensive and would likely reduce the level of alcohol. (Stopping fermentation at exactly the right point is a bit of an art in and of itself. If you don’t make sure you’ve killed all the yeast, the wine can continue to ferment in the bottle, which will eventually blow up.)
From now on, I’m going to try to determine sugar content for my reviews.
Reviews
Heron 2003 Merlot. California (red). Rating: Yummy. Cost: $11. Alcohol: 13 percent. Residual sugar: 0.5 percent (slightly sweet).
Laely Heron was here in Helena serving her wines at the Wine Crush earlier this year. She is both the owner and the winemaker. Heron Wines was started in 1996.
Merlots are not my favorites, but she is doing a nice job with hers. This one is smooth with a strong taste of berries and cherries. It has more flavor than some Merlots I’ve had at twice the price. Merlot admirers will like it. Others will be pleasantly surprised.
Sexto 2004. Spain (red). Rating: Really Good. Cost: $13. Alcohol: 13.5 percent. Residual sugar: Didn’t/wouldn’t say.
Sexto means “sixth” in Spanish and is a blend of six varietals: Grenache (33 percent), Carignan (30), Tempranillo (20), Lledoner Pelut Noir (6), Cabernet Sauvignon (6), and Syrah (5). Grenache is called Garnacha in Spain.
This is another of Laely Heron’s wines. The wine is produced in northeastern Spain (Catalonia’s Terra Alta region) and imported into the U.S. by Heron Wines. It’s fairly intense for a $13 wine. This is a good thing. It has lots of fruit and spiciness, and will make you pucker a bit. I thought there was a hint of tobacco in the finish. Not smoke, but just a slight hint of cured tobacco. Sounds weird, but it’s not.
I’d never heard of the Lledoner Pelut Noir grape either. In fact, my two source books don’t mention it at all. It appears to be a very close relative of Grenache. According to winemaker Heron, this is the grape that makes this wine special. I fully recommend it.
(Keith Lavender, aka, “The Wine Guy,” is a computer systems analyst and IT project manager with Northrop Grumman in Helena. His column appears in the Queen City News every other Wednesday.)
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