A plea for dry wine - Philip Bernot

If you are new to wine, say you just started sipping in the last ten to twelve years, or you are a very disinterested observer, you may not be aware that there has been a fundamental shift in wine making style in the last decade plus. This shift is especially apparent in the current crop of red wines, but has its roots in a similar phenomenon that started with California Chardonnay. This may be completely irrelevant to you as a wine drinker. Most people like wine for its therapeutic effects and I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to become a student of the game. Wine is a complicated subject and I doubt that most people have the time or inclination to take up the subject. After all, that’s why we are here! The only reason I bring it up is because the trend creates conflict between what consumers say they want and what they really seem to buy and consume. I am talking, of course, about the rising level of sweetness in wine as measured by residual sugar. Naturally occurring sugar in grapes works with yeast to create a byproduct – alcohol, by way of fermentation. When talking about table wines the standard for years was for there to be a fairly complete fermentation that left just trace amounts of residual sugar. This is what defines the term “dry.” Now, especially amongst the new world producers of Australia and California, there is a powerful market trend to leave some unfermented sugar, or even add back some sugar, in the finished wine. Again, the only reason I mention this is because the average customer grimaces at the idea of sweet wine but happily plunks down the pesos for a detectibly sweet Shiraz.

This story illustrates the conundrum perfectly; and would be quite funny if it did not make me want to cry; which it did: This week I tasted a dozen or so wines with Sigfried Pic, Export Director for Rhone Valley producer Ferraton Pere & Fils. The wines were uniformly excellent, and a couple selections were sensational values. As an experiment the folks at Ferraton took one of their dry red wines and added sugar (to approximately 6 grams/ per liter residual sugar, or about twice the level for “dry” and similar to the average Australian Shiraz) back into it, put the wine into the equivalent of a paint mixer, shook it up to integrate the sugar into the wine, and sped off to England for a tasting. Can you imagine doing this at home? I would wager large that most people would find the idea sickening. The UK is known for favoring the traditional, so this is particularly interesting - the tasting group was made up of both casual wine buyers and seasoned wine merchants. Many of the casual tasters went crazy “This is great, so bold!” The veterans were less impressed - “Did you change winemakers?” was the cautious, concerned reaction. It may be very easy to draw the conclusion that the market had spoken and that the buying public prefers sweeter wines. If that were completely true we would still be wearing leisure suits. I guess what I am trying to say is this sweeter style is a trend or a fad more than an absolute. I hope.

More than anything else, though, it is what you lose when you leave this much residual sugar in the wine - complexity. These sweeter wines are one-trick ponies. Lots of people seem to like the trick, but ultimately it is boring. Dry wines allow your mind to fill in the subtle nuances and ultimately are more complex and rewarding. At least in the opinion of this grizzled veteran!