Sweet Red Wine, Explained | Wine Enthusiast

Dry red wines might dominate the dinner table, but their sweet counterparts don’t get the attention they deserve. These wines are hardly one-note affairs, delivering a wide range of flavors and aromatic notes, plus a body that can swing from light to full.

Here’s a closer look at how it’s made and styles to know.

What Is a Sweet Red Wine?

All wines exist on the sweetness spectrum from dry to off-dry to semisweet to medium-sweet and (finally) sweet. A wine’s sweetness is determined by the amount of sugar that remains after fermentation is complete. Winemakers call this RS, or “residual sugar.” The more residual sugar, the sweeter the wine.

A sweet wine can be made from many different grapes and can range in hue from white to a deep red-purple.

Grapes ready for harvest in Italy / Getty

Where Do Most Red Wines Fall on the Sweetness Scale?

The most common red styles today are dry wines. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache, Zinfandel, Malbec and Pinot Noir are all typically fermented to dryness, which means that they contain a level of residual sugar that is undetectable (around 0.5 to 2 grams per liter) to all but the hyper-trained palate.

Even so, some dry wines have characteristics that make them taste slightly sweet. This might be due to the presence of particularly ripe flavor compounds, like that of dried dates or raspberry compote, or other flavor compounds that carry a sweet scent like vanilla and caramel. Even oak-aged wines can be perceived as sweet due to the presence of molecules called quercotriterpenosides.

Even though these wines may taste faintly sweet, because the sweetness doesn’t come from the presence of sugar, they’re still considered to be dry. Because of these nuances, the label of “dry” or “sweet” can sometimes be confusing or reductive.

How Is Sweet Red Wine Made?

The process of making sweet wines, including both red and wine varieties, can go down a handful of different ways. Some are made by fermenting grapes that have concentrated juices. This can include wines made with late-harvest grapes, as well as those made via the appassimento process, in which dried grapes are fermented.

Also in the mix: Wines made with an assist from Botrytis cinerea, or “noble rot,” a fungus that shrivels and browns grapes, which effectively concentrates their sugars. (Most Botrytis wines are white, but there exist a handful of notable red examples.)

Other sweet red wines are made via fortification, a process that involves adding a grape spirit to wine, which halts fermentation and ensures a desired amount of residual sugar. In some cases, a sweetening agent is added to wines after fermentation.

Common Types of Sweet Red Wine

Oftentimes served during a dessert course, the most popular sweet red wines include:

Port

Made in the Douro Valley of Portugal, Port wine is produced with local grapes, the most common of which is Touriga Nacional.

The wine is made sweet by the process of fortification: mid-fermentation, the winemaker adds a neutral grape spirit to the tank, which kills the yeast and halts fermentation. The residual sugars left in the wine add sweetness.

Port is typically fortified to somewhere between 19 to 22% alcohol by volume, and there are many different styles, Ruby and Tawny being the most common.

Ruby-style Ports are aged for two to three years and are often fruity, youthful and more affordable.

Tawny-style Ports are named for their tawny, sometimes pale, color and are often aged in small barrels. Some Tawny-style Ports are aged for decades and will feature the age indication on the bottle.

Recioto della Valpolicella

Valpolicella, a region in northern Italy, is known to make many different styles of wine with a blend of primarily Corvina and other local grapes. The region’s sweet style is Recioto della Valpolicella.

Recioto is made by the time-intensive process called appassimento. The best grapes are hand-picked and carefully laid on long, flat shelves traditionally made of bamboo, which are called fruttai. Over time, the grapes become a raisinated version of their former selves. As they dehydrate, their flavors, sugars, tannins, acid and colors become more and more concentrated.

Depending on how sweet a wine the winemaker wishes to make, they choose when to gather the grapes from their shelves and move them to a tank to ferment into wine.

Because the sugar levels are so high, the yeast simply can’t convert them all to alcohol; this results in a sweet wine. The appassimento process also imparts complexity and dried fruit aromas.

Lambrusco

This deeply purple, fizzy wine comes from the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Like many styles of sparkling wine, Lambrusco can be made dry or sweet. These wines can be lightly sparkling (look for frizzante on the label) or possess more intense bubbles. The levels of sweetness are categorized from dry to sweet:

Secco
Semi-Secco
Amabile
Dolce

The Lambrusco grape is actually a family of grapes, in which there are over 60 varietals, the most common being Lambrusco Grasparossa, Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Montericco, Lambrusco Salamino and Lambrusco Sorbara. Wines are typically fruit-forward and floral with notes of blackberry, strawberry, pomegranate, violet, chocolate and cream.

Brachetto d’Acqui

Bracchetto d’Acqui comes from the Piemonte region of Italy, and while the DOC was established in 1996, the wines are as old as antiquity.

Made from 100% Bracchetto, the wine is sweet, lightly sparkling and cherished for its classic pairing: anything chocolate. Bracchetto shows a bright ruby color with bright red fruit and perfume, often smelling of roses.