Semisweet wine

Eva Pizarro

Sumiller en restaurante Fierro y formadora en Tandem Gastronómico.

Semisweet wine has become more popular, particularly among younger people and those who are just starting to discover the world of wine. These wines win you over at the first taste.

The one thing that characterises these wines is that they are very easy to drink. They are usually very aromatic because of the high terpene content of the grapes that are used and ripen without any problems. Many of them are produced in the Mediterranean region, bathed in long hours of sunlight at warm temperatures. Moscatel, Malvasía, Viura, Palomino and Riesling sare some good examples of these grape varieties

To make a semisweetwine, not only is the right level of ripeness of the grapes required, but we also need to make sure the sugars remain in the wine itself. How do we achieve this? In previous articles we have already seen how fermentation is responsible for transforming sugars and other ingredients into alcohol. If fermentation takes place through to the end of the process, we will obtain a dry wine, but if it is interrupted before, the end result will be a sweeter wine:

• Sweet wines have a residual sugar content of over 45 g per litre. 
• Semisweet wines are those with a sugar content of over 12 g per litre and up to 45 g per litre. . 
• Semidry wines have a residual sugar content of between 5 and 12 g per litre. 

Finally dry wines are those that have sugar concentrations below 5 g per litre of wine.

Remember that the residual sugar content must always come from the grapes, their level of ripeness, and should never be from added sugar, otherwise we would be talking about wines that fall into the special wines category.

Their characteristics with regard to smell and flavour will be very different, as mentioned earlier. These are very fragrant wines with a nose reminiscent of dried apricots, fruit in syrup, stone fruit, yellow flowers, etc. and on the palate they are gentle, not excessively acidic and are sweet but not sickly.

This makes them ideal as an aperitif wine to serve with salad or vegetables, or with seafood such as fish or shellfish But they are more versatile than that, they pair wonderfully with cheese and pâté. Fruit desserts also make excellent companions for these wines.

In La Bodega de Consum you will be able to find the perfect wine for each occasion, and if you are looking for a semisweet wine, try Tierras Blancas or Maestrante - you won’t be disappointed. 

P.S. For more daring palates, try our semisweet wines with sushi or a spicy dish.