How Sweet Are Your Bubbles?
KD, fellow 451 Press blogger who is new to wine, sent me an e-mail asking about dry sparkling wine. I already replied to her with specific recommendations, which I have written about over the past few months, including here and here.
Based on the residual sugar in the wine, there are different levels of sweetness. To help you know what to look for in different languages, here is this handy chart, courtesy of The Oxford Companion to Wine and its editor (my hero!) Jancis Robinson. Sadly, the formatting doesn’t look as nice as the original.
English…..French….German…..Italian….Spanish
dry…………. sec…………trocken…….secco/ ……….seco
…………………………………………………..asciutto……………
med. dry..demi-sec…halbtrocken..abbocato…semiseco
medium…….moulleux….lieblich………amabile…..semidulce
sweet……….doux………süss…………dolce…………..dulce
Also, look for brut or extra brut on the label to know you’re getting the dry version.
sparkling wine, levels of sweetness, brut, Jancis Robinson





May 21st, 2007 at 11:54 am
we heart Jancis Robinson. Thanks for the chart!
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:39 am
How could anyone not love her?? Thanks for stopping by!