July 15, 2016

DECODING SWEETNESS LEVELS ON SPARKLING WINE LABELS

It might be more helpful if Champagne and sparkling wine bottles came labeled with terms like “cloyingly sweet for a Scotch drinker” or “dry as a line of Conga-dancing skeletons” (that one complete with imagery). But since bubbly bottles generally tend toward a classier look, we’re guessing they’re going to stick to the regular, if slightly confusing, sweetness level terminology. By which we mean brut nature, extra brut, brut, extra sec (dry), sec (dry), demi-sec (dry), doux.