What does it mean for a wine to be dry?

Karen MacNeil

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January 20, 2026

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January 10, 2025

What does it mean for a wine to be dry? The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

A. The wine has a lot of tannin

B. The wine has little to no sugar

C. The wine is meant to be paired with food

D. The wine has a high alcohol content

This term can be a bit confusing because wine, after all, is wet. A wine is considered “dry” if it has little to no residual sugar left in it. If a wine has any natural grape sugar left—that is, if some of the sugar was not converted to alcohol during fermentation—then the wine is said to have residual sugar (RS).

The Single Perfect Cheese for Wine

Sur lie

Sur lie is French for “on the lees,” and lees for their part The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

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