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Wine sweetness chart
What the terms on the label mean, and why an acidic wine tastes drier than its sugar suggests.
Sweetness in wine is measured as residual sugar in grams per litre: under about 4 g/L reads as dry, 4-12 g/L as off-dry, 12-45 g/L as medium, and anything above that as sweet. Dessert wines run from 45 g/L to over 200.
What complicates it is acidity. A high-acid wine tastes drier than its sugar level suggests, which is why a German Riesling at 30 g/L can read as crisp while a soft red at 10 g/L reads as sweet. Perceived sweetness is the balance, not the number.
Published 24 August 2026
| Category | Residual sugar | Labelled as | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bone dry | Under 1 g/L | Brut Nature, Zero Dosage | Muscadet, Chablis, most Sauvignon Blanc |
| Dry | 1-9 g/L | Dry, Brut, Secco | Most red wine, Pinot Grigio, Champagne Brut |
| Off-dry | 9-18 g/L | Extra Dry, Halbtrocken | Prosecco Extra Dry, many Rieslings, Vinho Verde |
| Medium | 18-45 g/L | Demi-Sec, Feinherb, Amabile | Riesling Kabinett, Vouvray Demi-Sec, Lambrusco |
| Sweet | 45-120 g/L | Doux, Moelleux, Süss | Sauternes, Riesling Auslese, Moscato d'Asti |
| Very sweet | Over 120 g/L | Liquoreux, Eiswein, PX | Tokaji Aszú, Ice Wine, Pedro Ximénez, Port |
Sparkling wine labelling runs counter to intuition: Extra Dry is sweeter than Brut, and Brut Nature is drier than both. The terms are historic and nobody is going to fix them.
Why acidity changes what you taste
Sugar and acid pull against each other. Raise the acid and the same sugar level reads as fresher and less sweet; drop the acid and a modest sugar level tastes cloying. This is the entire reason Mosel Riesling works: 40 g/L of sugar against very high acidity tastes lively rather than sticky.
It also explains a common confusion. Wines described as tasting sweet are often bone dry — ripe fruit character and oak-derived vanilla read as sweetness to the brain without a gram of sugar being present. A big Californian Cabernet is a regular victim of this.
How to tell before you buy
Alcohol is the best clue on a bottle that does not state sweetness. Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol, so a low-alcohol wine has often had that conversion stopped early — an 8% Riesling is almost certainly off-dry or sweeter, while a 13.5% one is likely dry.
Then the labelling terms, remembering the sparkling inversion above. Then the region: Vouvray, Mosel and Alsace all make dry and sweet versions of the same grape and rely on you reading the label.
Questions people ask
What is the sweetest wine?
Fortified and botrytised dessert wines — Pedro Ximénez Sherry, Tokaji Aszú at the higher puttonyos levels and Ice Wine all exceed 200 g/L of residual sugar, several times a typical dessert wine.
Is Prosecco sweeter than Champagne?
Usually, yes. Most Prosecco is labelled Extra Dry, which despite the name sits at 12-17 g/L, while most Champagne is Brut at under 12 g/L. Brut Prosecco exists and is drier.
What does "dry" mean in wine?
That fermentation converted nearly all the grape sugar to alcohol, leaving under about 4-9 g/L behind. It describes sugar, not tannin — a dry wine can still taste fruity.
Why does my dry wine taste sweet?
Ripe fruit character, high alcohol and oak-derived vanilla all read as sweetness without any sugar being present. Warm-climate reds do this constantly and are almost always technically dry.
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