Sugar High: A Quick Guide to Sweet Red Wine

Dry red wines might dominate the dinner table, but their sweet counterparts don’t get the attention they deserve. These wines are hardly one-note affairs, delivering a wide range of flavors and aromatic notes, plus a body that can swing from light to full.

Here’s a closer look at how it’s made and styles to know.

What Is a Sweet Red Wine?

All wines exist on the sweetness spectrum from dry to off-dry to semisweet to medium-sweet and (finally) sweet. A wine’s sweetness is determined by the amount of sugar that remains after fermentation is complete. Winemakers call this RS, or “residual sugar.” The more residual sugar, the sweeter the wine. 

A sweet wine can be made from many different grapes and can range in hue from white to a deep red-purple.

Where Do Most Red Wines Fall on the Sweetness Scale?

The most common red styles today are dry wines. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache, Zinfandel, Malbec and Pinot Noir are all typically fermented to dryness, which means that they contain a level of residual sugar that is undetectable (around 0.5 to 2 grams per liter) to all but the hyper-trained palate.

Even so, some dry wines have characteristics that make them taste slightly sweet. This might be due to the presence of particularly ripe flavor compounds, like that of dried dates or raspberry compote, or other flavor compounds that carry a sweet scent like vanilla and caramel. Even oak-aged wines can be perceived as sweet due to the presence of molecules called quercotriterpenosides. 

Even though these wines may taste faintly sweet, because the sweetness doesn’t come from the presence of sugar, they’re still considered to be dry. Because of these nuances, the label of “dry” or “sweet” can sometimes be confusing or reductive.