Sugar Content of Wines

During this pandemic a "bunch of old geezers" (including me) meet regularly via Zoom to chat and tell stories. At our last Friday conversation the topic of wine and sugar content came up (one of the gang is sugar conscious because of his diabetes). There was a claim that red wines had less residual sugar than white wines and this I argued was mistaken.  

The past weekend, in the Saturday Toronto Star, the wine column had a discussion of the issue and then contrasted several wines for their sugar content. There were a bunch of wines in tin cans which were off the scale for sugar content (they must be sold to the Coca-Cola market) and two bottled wines, a Cabernet Sauvignon (Red) at 6g/l and a Chloe Chardonnay (white) at 5g/l. The bottled wine I'd drink and, when I want Coca-Cola, I drink Coca-Cola.

By "g/l" we mean "grams per litre" — a bottle is usually .75l and 1 tsp of sugar is 4g. So the two bottled wines in the Star column had around a teaspoon of residual sugar.

If you want to know the residual sugar content (i.e. the sugar that's left over and not fermented by yeast into alcohol) you can usually find this at your LCBO on the paper sticker with the name/price/etc. Alternatively look it up on line at the LCBO web site. Here's the sugar content of some of the wines we drink at our house and some just picked at random from current listings. 

Whites:

• 2g/l - Errasuriz Sauvignon Blanc
• 6g/l - The Vinecrafter Chenin Blanc
• 6g/l - Sandpoint Chardonnay
• 8g/l - Lindeman's Bin 65 Chardonnay
• 10g/l - Willm Reserve Riesling

Reds:

• 2g/l - Rocca della Macie Chianti
• 3g/l - Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon
• 3g/l - Fantini Montepulciano D' Abruzzo
• 4g/l - Cono Sur Bicicleta Pinot Noir
• 5g/l - Ravenswood Vintners Blend Old Vine Zinfandel

One notable and popular red from California that is up there in the sugar scale at 17g/l is Meiomi Pinot Noir.

Of course there are really sweet wines, off the scale sweet, in both colors. For example, fortified wines where alcohol is added to stop fermentation before the sugar is consumed and the incredibly sweet dessert wines ....

• 95g/l  - Taylor Fladgate LBV Port (Red)
• 138g/l - Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry (White)
• 198g/l - Strewn Hockey Player Ice Time Vidal Icewine VQA

To be brief, don't believe that white wines have more sugar than reds. Like all generalizations, it's hasty. You now know that it all depends on what you drink. Look it up and find out the sugar content of the wines that you drink.  I'm not worried too much about the sugar content of the reds and whites that I drink.

Ps. You should drink what you like and ... "Drink in moderation ... often."