SAQ deserves credit for listing residual sugar amounts in its wines
Bill Zacharkiw gives credit to the SAQ for including the amount of residual sugar on the price tags of wine, and gives readers some more answers about what it all means
Concerned about how much extra sugar is in your wine? You are not alone. I am still getting questions from readers about the role of sugar in wine. But first, I have some good news.
Last year, the SAQ started listing the amount of residual sugar in wines available on its website. It is taking a while to get them all included, but the list will be complete within months, the SAQ says. Even better: the sugar level is now being added to the price tags in- store. Gone are such vague and sometimes erroneous descriptions as sec and demi- sec.
The SAQ is not required by law to provide this information, so it deserves a thank you.
And it means that now you can make an educated choice. Remember that a residual sugar level under 4 g/ L is considered a dry red wine. For whites, where acidity is higher, more sugar is permitted, and a wine is considered dry under 9 g/ L. But 9 g/ L is limited to grapes like riesling and a few others that are picked at very high acidity levels.
You have questions, I have answers.
QAre dry wines better?
ANot necessarily. I love German riesling, which often has a residual sugar level over 20 g/ L. I prefer Alsatian pinot gris when it has a touch of sweetness. Sparkling cider has lots of residual sugar in it, and I pop those babies back like water on a blisteringly hot summer afternoon.
But I want all of these wines to “taste” dry. Dessert wines are sweet — that’s their role. I like pinot gris after a few years of aging, which “eats up” the sugar; it tastes almost dry. Red wines generally have lower acidities, and even around 4 g/L, I find it can taste sweet. So, my preference in reds, as well as most whites, is to have as little residual sugar as possible.
This is, of course, personal taste. Most red wines are under this 4 g/ L, but the commercial success of such wines as Apothic ( 17 g/ L) and Ménage à Trois ( 12 g/ L) have led to copy cats. Even more disturbing, wines that were previously dry now have a few grams of extra sugar, a phenomenon I call the sugar creep.
Some readers have commented that I was bashing their favourite wine. That is not my intention. While I do want the “creep” to stop, I want anyone concerned about extra sugar, especially diabetics, to be able to make an informed choice. We have the option with every other food or beverage we consume.
QWhat is residual sugar versus added sugar?
AResidual sugar is grape sugars left unfermented in the wine. The primary sugars are glucose and fructose. As a wine ferments, the yeast converts sugar to alcohol. Glucose ferments at a faster rate, so much of the remaining sugar in the wine tends to be fructose. While it is impossible to completely ferment all sugars, 99 per cent can be fermented. There are various reasons for having residual sugar. One is a conscious decision by the winemaker to stop the fermentation, either to keep sugar to balance out acidity, as it is with riesling, or simply to make a sweeter wine. Another cause is what is referred to as stuck or incomplete fermentations, when the yeasts simply tucker out and can’t finish the job.
Added sugar is different. In cooler regions, where grapes don’t reach sugar levels that the winemaker deems satisfactory, sugar may be added to the grape juice to raise alcohol levels. This is called chapitalization. But all this sugar is fermented into alcohol. In the world of sparkling wines, a reserve wine mixed with sugar and yeasts is added to the wine to start a secondary fermentation in the bottle, which gives us those bubbles. This is called dosage. Some sugar may remain in the wine after this fermentation.
Another technique is adding unfermented and sometimes concentrated grape juice to a wine. This is called “back sweetening.” This is the case for many commercial wines whereby a dry wine is turned into a sweeter wine with the addition of the sweet juice. Aside from countering the acidity, or simply adding sweetness to the wine, added sugar will amp up the aromatics and fruit flavours of the wine, soften tannins and give the wine a richer texture.
QIs this a bad thing?
AThat’s up to you. I first broached the sugar subject in 2014 because I think people have as much right to know about sugar in wine as they have the right to know about sugar in orange juice. But for the moment, the federal government has yet to act and change labelling laws for alcohol.
Personal taste is a factor — if you like to drink these wines, at least you know what’s in them.
For those of us who love dry reds, and properly balanced whites, there is hope: more good, inexpensive wines that are actually dry are becoming available. I remember a tasting of new additions to the inexpensive wine category at the SAQ, and well over half were grossly sweet. That has changed, it seems — I have a few to recommend in today’s suggestions.