Label reading?

[Thomas]

You might find wines that are called dry (Dry Riesling) yet they do contain fair levels of sugar. That is because the term dry relates not to sugar but to acidity--dry is what acidity makes your mouth feel like.

To illustrate a dry sensation coming from a wine with considerable sugar, try Brut Champagne. Brut is a style of sparkling wine that can contain from .5% to as much as 2% residual sugar by volume, yet it is considerd a dry wine--high acid (plus Co2 to shield us from the sweet sensation).

As to your label question: SB is correct when he says that most labels will hardly identify when a wine is dry, but usually identify when a wine is sweet.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 04-06-2003).]