Is sauvignon blanc sweet or dry?

It is not the grape but the winemaker who decides. Sauvignon blanc yields juice with sugar; how much of that remains as residual sugar after fermentation is a choice made in the cellar.

Yeast converts grape sugar into alcohol. If the winemaker lets that fermentation run to completion, almost no sugar remains and the wine is dry. If fermentation is stopped earlier, by cooling or filtering, sugar is left behind.

With sauvignon blanc the fermentation almost always runs to completion. The chance that you are holding a dry bottle is therefore high, but that is a habit in the cellar and not a property of the variety. What dry precisely means in a wine is explained at what does dry wine mean. You can read the difference with the other big white grape at difference between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc.

At a maximum of 4 grams of residual sugar per litre. Up to 9 grams is also allowed, if the total acidity is no more than 2 grams per litre below the residual sugar content.

Those limits are in Annex III, part B of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, the European rules for designations on wine. Above that comes medium dry (up to 12 grams per litre, or up to 18 grams if the total acidity is no more than 10 grams per litre below the sugar), then medium sweet up to 45 grams, and sweet from 45 grams per litre.

That second limit of 9 grams is the reason why two bottles with the same sugar content do not necessarily have to carry the same designation: if there is enough acidity, it may be dry. You can read more about the role of acidity at what is acidity in wine.

Mainly because of the aroma. The official French grape variety register lists notes of bramble blossom, blackcurrant and boxwood for sauvignon; the palate reads that green, herbal side as not sweet.

A review article in the South African Journal of Enology and Viticulture identifies methoxypyrazines as the most important aroma compounds of sauvignon blanc, and mentions green pepper, grassiness and gooseberry among the typical notes. The same article states that the methoxypyrazine content falls as the grape ripens further and as more sun and warmth are added. A cooler season or a cooler area therefore holds on to that green side more strongly.

Acidity is part of the image, but it is not a fixed trait of the variety: the French variety register gives the acidity per clone, and it ranges from low to medium to high. The dry impression therefore comes more from the aroma than from a measured sugar content.

The origin determines the rules the wine has to meet. In Sancerre the white wines may only come from sauvignon B and may contain at most 4 grams of fermentable sugar per litre.

That is what the appellation's specification says: the white wines come from the single variety sauvignon B, with a glucose and fructose content of at most 4 grams per litre. Dry is not a style choice there but a condition for being allowed to use the name.

In Bathmen, the white wines with sauvignon blanc in the grape listing come from 10 countries, with France, South Africa, Chile and New Zealand as the largest origins.

Yes. In Sauternes and Barsac, sauvignon B is a permitted variety alongside semillon, and every batch must contain at least 45 grams of fermentable sugar per litre.

The specifications of both appellations name the same four varieties: muscadelle B, sauvignon B, sauvignon gris G and semillon B. The grapes are harvested overripe, with noble rot on them, and picked by hand in several passes through the vineyard.

That puts that wine under sweet in the European classification, because the limit for that is 45 grams per litre. The same grape that yields a dry wine in the Loire therefore also ends up in a sweet bottle in Bordeaux. What noble rot does to the grape is explained on what is noble rot.

Often not. For still wine the indication of the sugar content is not mandatory; only for sparkling wine must it, according to the European rules, be on the label.

Article 47 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 prescribes the indications from Annex III, part A for sparkling wine. Where the indication is mandatory, the actual sugar content may not deviate by more than 3 grams per litre from what is stated on the label.

Staat er niets over suiker op een stille sauvignon blanc, dan zegt dat dus niets over de stijl. Vraagt u het in de winkel, dan zoeken wij het voor u op. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan mensen onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.