Residual sugar in wine: labeling is good, but not to the detriment of taste

But they could be wrong. Because residual sugar is only one indicator among many of the quality of a wine.

The daily columnist Montreal GazetteBill Zacharkiw, was one of the first to put pressure on the SAQ to display the sugar levels in wine.

I met lots of people who suffer from diabetes, explains the columnist. They were drinking wines that were very, very sweet. And they had no idea the wine was sweet. I asked the SAQ to follow the LCBO [la Régie des alcools de l’Ontario] which displayed the sugar level on its website. I pushed, I think it took a year and a half, and they went a little bit further, they put it on the labels.

Essential sugar for making wine

The sugar naturally contained in the grape is at the very basis of fermentation, it is the sugar which is transformed into alcohol.

Grape juice is made up of fermentable and non-fermentable sugars, explains chemist and SAQ quality director Annie Letendre. The fermentable sugar is, for example, glucose and fructose, whereas the non-fermentable sugars are in particular galactose, xylose and arabinose.

Naturally present in the fruit, fermentable sugars are transformed into alcohol by yeasts. At the end of the process, a certain amount of sugar remains, commonly called residual sugar.

Wines that are too sweet

And the sugar in the wine, consumers liked that a lot ten years ago, explains the importer and wine representative Alexandre St-Pierre, of the Vinicolor agency.

The best-selling wines in Quebec were fairly industrial wines where, sometimes, such a high degree of sugar was probably wanted and beneficial for the taste side. It’s a bit like cooking, when it lacks a little flavor, we add a little sugar or a little salt.

The best-selling rosé in Quebec [en 2012-2013] contained 40 grams of sugar per liter, says Mr. St-Pierre. Five years later, the best seller is at less than 2 grams per liter!

A major change has indeed taken place in consumer habits: the demand for dry wines has become the norm.

And wine producers have even adapted their products to demand.

Alexandre St-Pierre remembers this misadventure, following an SAQ labeling error: A wine that had a sugar content of 2 g/l was displayed at 5.7 g/l. Sales have fallen in a few months by 30 to 40%. Once the error was fixed, it took a few weeks, and it was back to normal.

Growing demand for dry wines

Alexandre St-Pierre observes it in outlets, consumers are asking for white wines at less than 2 g/l and reds at less than 4 g/l.

The SAQ confirms this trend. But Annie Letendre adds a caveat. I hope people are looking for dry wines for personal tastes. If you’re just looking for them to reduce your calorie count or decrease your sugar intake, it’s not really worth it.

” In a standard 140 ml glass of wine, there are 13 grams of alcohol. Each gram of alcohol provides 7 calories. So, in a glass of wine, there are just over 90 calories. If I take a wine with 4 grams of sugar per liter, I will only add a few calories to my glass. »

Sugar and acidity

In fact, residual sugar is important for the balance of a wine.

It balances acidity, says columnist Bill Zacharkiw. The best example is a Riesling from Germany or Niagara, where you will sometimes see 10, 15 or 20 grams of sugar. But if it wasn’t there, the acidity would be so sharp it would be undrinkable.

I prefer to tell people: drink what you like, concludes Alexandre St-Pierre. Drink what’s good instead of watching the sugar level. You have to choose a wine according to what it is, its terroir, its taste and not its sugar level.