It can be a bit of a gamble to buy Alsatian wine. Will the wine be completely dry or will it have some residual sugar? But all this uncertainty will soon end. As of vintage 2016 it will be mandatory for white Alsatian wines that have less than 4 grams of residual sugar per litre to put the word “sec”, ie dry on the label. By doing this the wine producers in Alsace hope that the consumers will have an easier time choosing their Alsace wine.
A good decision, we think. We sometimes hesitate to open an Alsatian wine for dinner for fear that it will be too sweet. So something needed to be done. Less than 4 grams of residual sugar are considered as dry according to EU standards. But there is one exception and that exception will also apply for Alsatian wines. A wine is considered as dry if it has up to 9 grams of sugar per litre, provided that the total acidity is not less than 2 grams lower than the sugar content. So, if the acidity is 6 grams per litre, the sugar level can be 8 grams and the wine is still considered dry. According to the theory that high acidity masks sweetness. I don’t particularly like this exception myself. Even if the sugar to some extent is masked by the acidity, it is still there.
Read more about this new rule in Alsace at La Vigne.
