How You Like Your Coffee Tells a Lot About How You Like Your Wine

In the 35 years that I have been recommending wine, both in the retail as well as the restaurant venue, one of the most confusing subjects has always been that of sweetness and dryness. For many people, dry, which is really just a lack of sweetness, is sour. As Americans, we tend to drink cold, sweet beverages. We are raised on apple juice and Coca-Cola, so it is no wonder that White Zinfandel has been so popular. When trying to do “wine-speak” I go through a series of questions attempting to determine someone’s sweet/dry threshold. Do you drink black coffee? Do you put cream and sugar in your coffee? Do you put sugar in iced tea? Those few simple questions can give me a pretty good shot at determining the type of wine a person might enjoy. Black coffee would be a similar flavor profile to stronger dry red wine. Both have bitterness, astringency and lack of sweetness (dry). People using cream would indicate that they like softer flavors, possibly Pinot Noir, or even oaky-style dry whites such as Chardonnay or a beautiful Missouri Chardonel. Iced tea without sugar is a dry white wine, like a Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc or a crisp, dry Vidal from one of our local vintners. In wine competitions, wines entered for judging are separated into classes largely based on sweetness. Generally the level of 0.7 percent sugar is the maximum amount at which a wine is still considered to be dry. Because contests must have rules, a starting and stopping point is necessary, but it is not quite that simple. Perception of sugar also greatly depends on the amount of acidity that a wine has. German wines, and other high-acid and generally sweeter wines, are often much higher in actual residual sugar (the amount of sugar left unfermented after the fermentation process has converted the other sugar to alcohol) than they seem to be due to the acidity masking the sweetness. Low-acid wines with higher sweetness are often called “flabby” or unbalanced because there’s not enough acidity to balance the sweetness. Even using the 0.7 percent as a dryness level, most people can taste some sweetness at the 0.5 percent level. It is the 0.5 to 0.7 percent range where many of the very popular California Chardonnays are located. When Kendall-Jackson began its stunning sales growth of premium-priced Chardonnay many years ago, it was largely due to the blending and winemaking skills of Jed Steele. He would leave a touch of residual sugar to soften the edges, but not a perceptible amount for most consumers. Another key issue and confusing aspect of wine description is fruity versus sweet. Fruity simply means that the wine displays character of the fruit from which it was made. Fruity is not the same as sweet. Sweet wines can be fruity. Dry wines can be fruity. It is the responsibility of the winemaker to keep all of the parts in balance. If there is too much or too little acidity or too much oak or too much tannin, too much alcohol or even not enough alcohol, the wine will be unbalanced, and there is really nothing you can do to make it complex or interesting. So, the confusion goes on. People like sweet but think that they are supposed to drink dry. We generally do not look upon wines with residual sugar as high quality, unless they are the luscious late-harvest wine of Germany, the amazing and richly sweet Sauternes of Bordeaux, the stunning ice wines of Canada and similar products from Missouri vineyards. Stone Hill Winery and Hermannhof Winery have both had great success with late harvest and ice wines. I have always loved the lightly sweet German-style Missouri wines, which are often the largest sellers. Slight sweetness matches many foods perfectly. Vignoles, with its glorious acidity balanced with just rthe right amount of residual sugar, complements spicy Tex-Mex, Szechwan and Indian curries perfectly. One of the reasons that wine may seem so intimidating for non-wine drinkers, or even new wine drinkers, is the perception that you need to know so much to enjoy wine. I believe that the opposite is more the truth, that you can totally enjoy a wine, regardless of price, grape variety, producer or country, simply on a hedonistic level. Having said that, some of the greatest enjoyment of wine is to learn about it. I have enjoyed and studied wine since my first days in the Army in Honolulu, when I attended wine appreciation classes at the University of Hawaii. This was nearly 35 years ago, and that simple journey has become a lifelong passion and thirst, not only for wine, but for wine knowledge. With wine, every year is different. Vines die. Winemakers move. New yeasts and types of oak become available. The wine world is ever-changing, but always intriguing and evolving. It is not only a beverage, but also geography, geology, history, tradition, botany, chemistry and family. It’s October, so take a drive to some of our Midwest wineries and learn dry and sweet from the source. Wineries are truly the first level of wine education, and they are fun.