Suggestions on first wine

[Thomas]

ikapell, you almost got it; but you need more information.

When it comes to wine, sweet and dry are not so, well, cut and dry. Many dry wines contain tiny levels of sugar--a lot of those Chardonnays spoken of above contain as much as 2% residual sugar by volume. While dry often means low sugar, it also means sugar relative to acidity--the higher the latter, the lower the perception of the former.

Re, sparkling wine and spumante; the latter is a word for sparkling wine; it does not necessarily refer to sweetness. Re, fortified wines: not all sherry is sweet, and not all Madeira either.

The main thing to think about is that wine is food. When you explore wine's relationship to food, its dry-ness or sweet-ness become important only in how they relate to the food. Also, when you have dry red wine with its best food counterpart, the so-called sandpaper feeling is not only diminished, it becomes something completely different and often pleasurable.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 03-10-2002).]