(WineFolly) - “I have a beautiful Riesling that would go great with your dinner.” “No thanks, I don’t like sweet wines. I will just have a Coke.”

A dialog that has played out countless times.

How many of us think that a Coke is less sweet than the average Riesling or sweet wine? Would you be surprised to learn that Coke has about the same level of sugar, at 108 g/L, as some of the sweetest dessert wines? For example, a 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu has 120 g/L of residual sugar (a 4 puttonyos has 90). By the way if you have never had a 5 puttonyos Tokaji, try one, they’re outstanding!

Sweetness is a perception. Bitterness, like the caffeine in colas, or tannins in wine, will reduce the perception of sugar. So does acidity. Hence the delightful phosphoric acid in your Coke, and the importance of natural acidity in wine.

“We each have our own thresholds for not only sweet, but for all flavors.”

I often use lemonade as an example of this delicate balance. The sour acid of the lemons is balanced by the sweetness of the sugar. To much of one or the other and you get a drink that is too sour or too sweet –for you. Offer the same drink to someone else, it may be perfect to them. We each have our own thresholds for not only sweet, but for all flavors.

For a well balanced Riesling, or any wine with residual sugar, the key is a careful balance between sweet and sour. This vinous juggling act is one of the toughest in winemaking, and not everyone gets it right. So why then are sweeter white wines so rarely given the respect they may deserve? Talk about decent sweet wines, and the conversation almost always leaps to the amazing dessert wines of the world, while bypassing those with less sugar.

 Where Does Sugar in Wine Come From?

The sugar in wine is called residual sugar or RS, and it doesn’t come from corn syrup or granulated sugar, but from the natural sugars found in wine grapes which include fructose and glucose. During winemaking, yeast typically converts all the sugar into alcohol making a dry wine. However sometimes, not all the sugar is fermented by the yeast, leaving some sweetness leftover.