Wine 101: Residual Sugar

Residual sugar is the content of sugar left in the wine after fermentation. While most wines will have almost close to 0 gram (meaning the yeast has done its job!), some wines - especially the ones made from grapes with higher sugar content like Pinot Gris, for example - may still have some, maybe a few grams, left naturally after the end of the fermentation. For many German wines, the winemaker actually stops the fermentation before completion to intentionally keep some residual sugar. This can be done by simply chilling the wines to close to 0 degrees, killing the yeast. Depending on the classification, the sugar will vary: Halbtrocken (half-dry) wines will have the least amount of sugar which is around 12 to 18 grams of sugar per liter. This is followed by Spätlese (Late Harvest), Auslese (Selected berries), then Beerenauslese (Selected Berries) and finally Eiswein (Ice-wine), which can go up to 400 grs of sugar per liter!