WINES & SUCH: Sweet or dry taste of wine

It never fails. At least once during the wine events I conduct, someone asks, “Do you have any sweet wines at your table?” About 80 percent of the time, I am forced to reply, “Sorry not this evening.”

I reckon most of these good people are likely enjoying their first wine tasting and have not developed a palette for 90 percent of the world’s wine selections, the majority of which are considered “dry.” The wine lexicon does not accept the word “sour” as the reverse of sweet because this designation quite naturally will turn people away. Who wants to drink “sour” anything? Hence the term “dry.”

“Sweet” wine is one containing unfermented or “residual” sugar. With great dessert wines from France such as Sauternes, or the Beerenauslese of Germany, the sugar must come by law from natural grape sugars present at the time of harvest.

Gentle readers, please understand today’s many “pop” wines achieve their appeal by adding a sweetening agent after fermentation.

There are scads of somewhat sweet wines from Australia (Traminer-Riesling), California (Chenin Blanc) and Germany (Riesling). The method used to achieve sweetness is to halt fermentation before all the naturally present grape sugars have been converted into alcohol.

Remember the basic formula for fermentation: Yeast plus sugar equals alcohol plus carbon dioxide. So grapes with an abundance of natural sugar will become even sweeter through the intervention of a winemaker.

It is this class of sweet wines I want to address. Let’s forget for now about dessert wines which, by virtue of scarcity and labor-intensive manufacture, are expensive and, for most, not meant really for daily sipping.

For reasons I have not been able to understand, it seems most American wine consumers are turned off by the idea of drinking sweeter-style white wines.

Let’s look at one of these semi-sweet or semi-dry wines, if you prefer labels which do make for really good drinking regardless of the food match.

We start with a country and a grape likely never heard about nor explored. That is an Austrian (not Australian) grape called “Grüner Veltliner (groo-ner felt-lih-ner). It is Austria’s most widely planted variety, some with a pale green tint, crisp, slightly spicy and always wines of the highest quality.

The once-obscure grape has risen in reputation in the past 10 years for several reasons: The wines are well made and never flabby or overtly simple. Grüner Veltliner is truly food-friendly. Some regard it as a cross between Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, a happy cross indeed. One critic described the finish (swallow) as a subtle rush of white pepper.

In Austria, a favorite dish is Wiener schnitzel, veal cutlets coated with bread crumbs and sautéed (I love it). Crisp and tender, try some of this wine with fried chicken. It works like a charm and is a yummy combination.

Alas, having said all this, it is discomforting to admit that, locally, I have found but one lonely single Grüner Veltliner. It is “Hopler” 2009, priced at $13 and very nice, too.

The answer, if anyone wishes to discover this “new” varietal, is to go online and search away. Dozens in every price range will appear. Readers may explore the offerings (some shipping free) to their heart’s content.

The answer to last week’s trivia question — What is a blind tasting? — is the people tasting and at times the exhibitors (double blind) do not know the identity of the wine’s origin, nor the price range. This kind of session will not influence opinions and lay scoring strictly on participants’ senses.

Oak Ridge resident Ron Drinkhouse was a buyer and seller of wines in his native Connecticut. He welcomes inquiries, and can be reached via email at ronoct9@aol.com or via telephone at 352-445-0328.