Aromatic White

Perfumed fruit and floral aromas fly out of your glass with these wines. They’re often (but not always) made in a style with some residual grape sugar. However, much like good lemonade, this sweetness is generally used to balance an aggressive acidity or bitterness in the wine. The sugar is there for balance, not just for the sweetness’s sake. Without retaining a little naturally-occurring grape sugar, many of these wines would be far too bitter or acidic for most drinkers. This style of wine is often referred to as, “harmoniously sweet”. Remember, sweetness isn’t inherent to certain grapes, because leaving sugar in a wine is a wine-making decision, rather than a prerequisite of a given grape. Any type of grape can be made dry, including those you may generally associate with sweet styles. Riesling is the foremost example of this. You can’t smell sweetness. You can smell aromas you associate with sweet flavors, but until you take a sip, there’s no way to know whether the wine is sweet or dry. These grapes below are great to train your palate on the difference between sweetness (a taste) versus fruitiness (an aroma).