penguinoid
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Echinosum
What can be called "dry" depends on local rules.
In Germany, "trocken" requires at most 9g/litre of residual sugar.
In France, "sec" requires at most 4g/litre of residual sugar. Given the lack of indication of dryness of Alsace wines on the label, some time ago the Alsatians proposed that Alsace riesling had to be dry, unless it said it was vendange tardive or SGN. But there was a lot of opposition to that, and I don't think it has happened. And confusion equally surrounds other grape varieties in Alsace, especially gewurz and pinot gris. To open a pinot gris and find it off-dry, with no indication on the label, is arguably even more upsetting than with riesling.
Interesting, I didn't know the two countries had different definitions of dry (sec/trocken)!
Even for wines that are always sweet, it can be confusing if you are not familiar with appellation names. Quarts de Chaume, for example, is always a sweet (Chenin blanc) wine, but doesn't always state this on the label. I could see how someone who wasn't familiar with the region might buy a bottle under the misapprehension that it's a dry wine  . (I gave a bottle to a friend a few years ago, and actually had to write 'sweet wine' on the label so they wouldn't forget!)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Echinosum
But what we perceive as dry is more complex than residual sugar. The International Riesling Foundation set out much more complex guidelines on what was dry, based more closely on how we perceive it. Their website (drinkriesling.com) can no longer be found, but fortunately this website has preserved a copy of their guidelines. Basically what they are saying is that how much sugar relative to acid will be perceived as dry varies considerably with pH.
So, for example, a wine with a sugar to acid ratio below 1 will typically be perceived as dry, provided the pH is below 3.2. But at pH 3.5, equal sugar and acid would be perceived as medium sweet. At pH 2.8, the wine can be perceived as dry with a sugar to acid ratio even as high as 4. It should be understood that acid quantity does not translate to pH, there are other constituents in wine that modify the pH depending on the acid content. Unfortunately it doesn't say what sugar/acid ratio would be perceived as dry at pH 3.5 - perhaps dry rieslings rarely have a pH this high.
On this basis, noting that even "dry" can have a fair bit of residual sugar, we can understand that there is "dry" and there is "very dry".
Sometimes you can get a detailed chemical analysis from the wine producer, but only occasionally at sufficient level of detail to use the chart.
Yes, there is a very complex interplay between sweetness and acidity. At one point, Riesling producers were being encouraged to use a simple line graph showing sweetness levels (such as the one shown here) but I am not sure if that's really taken off as much as could be hoped. It's a good idea though, and would be nice to see expanded to other grapes and wine styles that can be produced at different levels of sweetness.
With the US rieslings I tried, I think part of the reason they all tasted sweet is that they were all rather low in acidity. (Oddly, since acidity is normally almost a defining feature of riesling -- I was left wondering if they'd been de-acidified!)
Also, it's interesting that they concentrate on pH as a measure of acidity. I've always read that titratable acidity is more important in terms of sensory perception of acidity. I guess pH is simpler to measure?
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