TINUS TALKS

A LOCAL CIDER MIGHT HAVE THE TAG LINE OF IT BEING “DRY … BUT YOU CAN DRINK IT.” WELL, SEEMS LIKE WINE IS GOING THE OTHER WAY.

GILDING THE LILY

Almost imperceptibly, sweetness has been creeping into South African white, red and rosé wines, regardless of the varietal, types and styles involved.

It’s almost as if the wave of consumer interest in sweeter wine which started appearing in international markets some years ago, has now reached South African shores like a tsunami.

The commercial demand for sweeter wine is nothing new: there was the infamous Portuguese Mateus Rosé, the most popular wine in the world during the early seventies. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix was photographed drinking the wine from the bottle, and in 1973 Elton John merrily sang, “I get juiced on Mateus and just hang loose…” Apparently even Queen Elizabeth II demanded it. Then there were the Zinfandels from the Unites States, also Cold Duck, Blue Nun from Germany, the Asti’s from Italy, and in South Africa we have had – and still find – the late harvest wines.

Nowadays, especially in the lower to medium price range categories, more pertinent sweetness is evident across the board. Don’t be surprised

Perhaps this snobbishness, this prejudice towards sweeter wines has at long last been reversed to make place for a more relaxed, mature view of selecting, serving and enjoying wine.

if your favourite Merlot or Chardonnay suddenly tastes sweeter than before. In fact, the current top selling wine brand in the world is “4th Street” from South Africa, the sales of which have increased by three million nine litre cases in 2015.

The “taste sweetness” in wine is attributed to “residual sugar”, or RS for short and is commonly measured in grams per litre (g/l). More specifically RS is the level of fructose or grape sugars and glucose that are not converted into alcohol during the wine’s fermentation.

On the other hand, the “sweet fruit” taste of a wine is primarily determined by the ongoing interaction of sugar, alcohol, acids and tannins, responsible for a combination of richness, depth, flavour intensity and concentration, finesse and harmony. Sweet taste derived from residual sugar can be measured while sweet fruit impression is an intangible of mouthfeel, sensations and perceptions.

In South Africa a wine with a residual sugar content of below 2.5g/ l is certified as “extra-dry”; between 2.5 to 5g/ l or not exceeding 9g/ l , is regarded as “dry”, provided the total acidity is more than 2g/ l below the sugar content whilst a “semi-dry” wine will have a RS between 5 to 12g/ l , or not exceeding 18g/ l if the total acidity is not more than10g/ l below the sugar content reading. A “semi-sweet” wine will have a RS of between 5 to 30g/ l . Therefore, one could savour a cabernet sauvignon with 9g/ l of RS and a total acidity of 6g/ l , and although the wine might have a sweetish taste, it will still be a dry wine.

Linked to the above parameters is the fact that acidity counterbalances the sweet taste of wine, thereby tricking our perception of sweetness. This means that a wine with a higher acidity will taste more “dry” than a wine with less acidity. For this reason the term “dry”, simply depicting a wine with little or less residual sugar, is misused. The reason for this is that we cannot easily differentiate between a wine that tastes sweet due to a higher RS, or because of the sweet fruit impressions present in the wine. A dry wine is simply a wine with a low reading of residual sugar, meaning it is not sweet. The key is not to confuse the absence of sweetness or dryness with the absence of fruit. In a dry wine you will, and should still, taste fruit; the wine will just not taste sweet, like fruit juice. Could it be then that the shift of popular wine preference towards sweeter wine is simply a sign of growing up that is slowly becoming evident among South African wine drinkers? Not so many years ago it was a social taboo to serve sweet wine, including the glorious muscadels and hanepoots. People allegedly preferred drinking dry wine, wine snobbery prevailed. In the meantime the sweeter wines were enjoyed with alacrity in the quiet, hence the tongue-in-cheek expression, “talk dry and drink sweet.”

Perhaps this snobbishness, this prejudice towards sweeter wines has at long last been reversed to make place for a more relaxed, mature view of selecting, serving and enjoying wine. That will be a good day for wine.