Dry

Dry meaning in wine

Dry wine has little or no perceptible sweetness. In a formal labeling system, however, dry can also be a defined sugar category. The exact rule depends on whether the wine is still or sparkling and which jurisdiction or appellation controls the label.

For still wine, the OIV reference definition allows a maximum of 4 g/L glucose + fructose, or up to 9 g/L when total acidity, expressed as tartaric acid, is no more than 2 g/L below the sugar content. That acidity condition is why “dry always means under 4 g/L” is incomplete.

Sparkling wine uses a different vocabulary: under current EU rules, Brut is less than 12 g/L, while the label term Dry / Sec / Secco / Seco is a sweeter 17–32 g/L category.

Use the full wine sweetness chart for the separate still and sparkling scales. See also residual sugar and Sec, Secco, and Seco.