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What is the difference between dry and Brut for sparkling wine?
The difference between the flavours dry and sparkling Brut in sparkling wine lies in the residual sugar content. A "drysparkling wine " contains more residual sugar than a "brut sparkling wine"; the latter is therefore more bitter in flavour and, in a sense, drier than dry.
"Brut" comes from the French (the T at the end is pronounced, so the word sounds like "brütt") and means, among other things, "raw". According to this understanding, a "raw" sparkling wine is one that has been fully fermented and has not undergone any "processing" in the form of added sugar.
The residual sugar content of "Sekt brut" may be up to 12 grams per litre, and between 17 and 32 grams per litre for "Sekt trocken". The complete gradation of flavours for sparkling wine is as follows:
- Brut nature (less than 3 g/l residual sugar)
- extra Brut (up to 6 g/l residual sugar)
- Brut (up to 12 g/l residual sugar)
- extra dry (12 to 17 g/l residual sugar)
- dry (17 to 32 g/l residual sugar)
- semi-dry (32 to 50 g/l residual sugar)
- mild (over 50 g/l residual sugar)