There is an old saying in the wine business: “Americans talk dry but drink sweet.” I believe this is true.
I evaluate dozens of wines each week. Most of the whites are either actually sweet or so soft that they would taste terrible with food. And unfortunately, a growing number of red wines, including some of the most expensive, are also now either deficient in acidity or actually sweet.
However, instead of decrying this situation, I always remember the way many Americans consume hot dogs and burgers, fries, potato chips, onion rings, and popcorn—with cola.
This is not the only nation that appreciates sweet beverages with savory foods, but we hugely adhere to that model.
Indeed, “dry” wine may be more popular nationally today than ever before, but much of it isn’t dry in the traditional European sense.
The use of quotation marks around the word “dry” in defining what today’s wines taste like suggests that not all zero-sugar wines are actually dry on the palate. Many wines that historically were always dry today are no longer dry.
And although many issues are at play here, only one of them is sugar.
It is easy to make certain that a wine is slightly sweet. Just make sure it has some sugar, which can be achieved legally in several ways. One is to stop the fermentation before all the sugar is converted to alcohol.
This common tactic makes otherwise dry wines more appealing to people who don’t like bone-dry wines. And there are apparently a lot of such people in this country.
Another way to make a wine taste sweet is to guarantee it has high alcohol. The higher the alcohol in a wine, the sweeter it tastes. Dozens of California Zinfandels have 15.5 percent alcohol or more. Such wines can taste sweet.
Many winemakers have told me they know of the wide use of high-proof alcohol added to red wines to make them “sweeter” on the tongue.
When I said that tactic was illegal, they often replied that detection is impossible and that in any case, the U.S. government has no system in place to monitor such issues.
Occasionally, you find high alcohols in U.S. wines that are $100 or more a bottle and sold only at tiny wineries. The government testing program never tests such wines for compliance with alcohol regulations. As long as a winery pays its federal tax, the government is satisfied.
Another way to make a dry wine taste sweet is to make certain that the acid level is very low and the pH level is very high.
Better-balanced red wines should have an acid level of 6.0 grams per liter or higher and a pH of 3.6. I realize that this is geeky, but I think it’s time that all wineries begin to tell consumers what the acids, pHs, and other statistics are of their wines.
Empowering consumers to know what they are buying so they can make an informed decision is a lot better than hiding such facts behind the line. I usually get “Most consumers don’t care.”
When a bottle of wine is selling for $20 or more, consumers should know what they are getting.
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