When trying to make up my mind about purchasing wine, I frequently look to the winery’s published technical data. There you find “useful” information like harvest date, grape clones, root stock, pH, TA, maceration conditions, oak treatment, soil type, Brix, etc… However, there are two details that are frequently missing, ABV and residual sugar. The non disclosure of residual sugar levels annoys me to no end. I don’t want sweet red wine. If your $75/bottle Cabernet has 10g/L RS, that is a hard pass for me. I cannot purchase your product without knowing this. Why aren’t you providing this information? I’m pretty sure that there is no reason for me to know your rootstock. Okay, rant over.
For my purpose the most critical datum is always there - the importer’s name. But I understand that’s only important for old world-oriented bottom-feeding bargain hunters like me.
Not a myth. RS > 3g/L is easily noticeable to me. Here are a few examples: Faust Cabernet 5g/L, Cakebread Cabernet 5 g/L, Caymus Cabernet 10 g/L, Emmolo Merlot 10 g/L.
I’ve never seen mega-Purple, or any of its cousins, listed on a single tech sheet. Do I then deduct that none is used in the wine industry?
I look at RS like I do mega-Purple. For most red wines a lot of us wouldn’t buy them if the RS is to high. Therefore one is made to pay the price to find out.
One thing that’s worth remembering is that alcohol can, by itself, give the impression of sweetness, so you can’t be sure something has RS just because it seems sweet.
Which is not to say that there isn’t a lot of RS!
Interesting. Perhaps it’s omitted because, at the stated 27 Brix, the wine would end up at ~16% if fermented dry.
And what about all the needless additives that some (lesser) producers put in the mix?
Additives are all components, apart from grapes and sulphur (in some cases also yeast)
I’m not sure that any of those things tell you how a wine is going to taste. If I say there’s x amount of RS, you’ll look for it and confirm your pre-existing ideas. I’ve tasted wines that I swore had 3-4 g/l of RS and when I was shown the tech data, there was less than 1.5. As John said, alcohol can give the impression of sweetness. More importantly, so can fruit. We are used to sugar with ripe fruit so we place it there whether or not it’s around. And the tannin and structure of the wine, as well as the acidity, will also work to attenuate our perceptions.
So I’ve entirely given up worrying about ABV, RS and all the rest before I taste a wine. I’m willing to see what it is and look for those things afterwards, rather than imagine I know everything about the way a wine will taste without ever tasting it.
I don’t choose wine to buy or drink by the numbers, whether alcohol, acid, RS, brix at harvest, whatever. I don’t believe the correlation is good enough to look at a data sheet and know whether the wine will appeal to me. I’d rather taste it. Or if expensive, first ask someone whose palate I know what they think.