Column: Dry? How dry?

Mark Bertrand loves Italy. He loves the country, the culture, the crowds, the chaos, the hand gestures, the food and especially the wines. For him, a wine is more than the product in a bottle. For Mark, it is an experience, waiting to be opened. He goes in search of the story behind the wine and likes to take you on that journey of discovery.
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Dry January. I understand that it is good to undergo a healthy reset from time to time but to elevate it to a phenomenon now, I think is something typically Dutch again. Incidentally, Dry January was invented by the British organisation Alcohol Change but you know what I mean. What I do find interesting is the expression ‘dry’ as in dry white wine. Where does that expression come from?

Sugar content

A wine is called ‘dry’ if during fermentation almost all the natural sugars in the grapes are converted into alcohol. So hardly any sweet residual sugars remain and that low sugar content is therefore called ‘dry’. And by low sugar content, I mean really low hehe: less than 1% of sugar. In red wine, that dry feeling can also come from tannins but that's a side-track for now. By the way, that ‘dryness’ doesn't just happen, it's really the winemaker's choice. He or she can stop the fermentation process or just let it continue. When the yeast has converted all the sugars, we have a dry boy on our hands. Incidentally, you can taste immediately if you are dealing with a dry wine. With a white wine, people are quick to say it is ‘high in acidity’. This is true, as notes of lemon, lime, green apple (granny smith) or grapefruit then win out over the sugars (which are hardly there). You can be absolutely sure if you feel tingling on the side of your tongue. Then you really have a dry white wine on your hands.

Experience

With a dry red wine, you experience it differently again. At first, it feels stiff, especially at the sides of your cheeks. That stiffness is the tannins and wine experts sometimes say then that the wine is’ high in tannins’. You can compare it a bit to eating an unripe banana. The trick is to take a sip and then ‘chew’ for a moment: slurp in some air and let the wine pass through your mouth to activate the flavours and feel the texture. The wine will also warm up a little. If you have any doubts: if the wine tastes syrupy and ‘thick’ on the tip of the tongue, it is not a dry but a sweet wine. Also tasty but really different. In a true dry red wine, tannins are present anyway in combination with fruity notes, herbal (or spice-rich) or earthy notes such as moss or stone. It's just a matter of practice, tasting, slurping and experiencing where the tingle is most palpable.

So you see, drinking wine is more than liking or not liking something. It is tasting, experiencing and putting together a pallet for yourself. Comparing and trying to figure out the flavours. What exactly am I tasting? And where is the taste sensation? But above all, practice, for a whole month of January.