The Types of Wine

Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wines, or effervescent wines, are defined by their release of carbon dioxide bubbles. These can have a variety of names depending on their origin, the most well known is Champagne. However other well known names are Cava from Spain, Asti from Italy and Cap Classique from South Africa.

White Wine

In simple terms, white wines can be descibed as Sweet or Dry. Put simply, sweetness of a white wine depends on two things, if any extra sugar was added, and when the fermentation was stopped. Stopping a fermentation early gives a sweet wine, and late, a dryer one.

Supermakets and wine merchants sometimes use a scale of 1 to 9 to describe this, where 1 is the dryest and 9 is the sweetest.

Rosé Wine

Rosé wine is, perhaps unfairly, scoffed at by many connoisseurs. Its light and uncomplex fruitiness fails to attract the attention accorded to a red or white wine. However, this light fruitiness often leads to it being regerded to as a summer wine, and as such it is very pleasant and drinkable.

Red Wine

Red wines are harder to describe on a scale than whites, since they are all techincally dry. The weight and alcohol content are often key qualities to consider, red wine can range from light and quaffable to big and powerful.

Dessert Wine

Dessert Wines, as the name suggests, are meant to go with dessert, however they are often better on their own. Dessert wines aren't for everyone, some people find them just too sweet. A typical dessert wine can have about 200 grams per liter of sugar!

Fortified Wine

Fortified wine such as Port and Madiera are more alcoholic, and have more weight than a standard wine. They can range between dry and sweet, and can keep for years.

Return to the Wine Guide Contents
Buying in Bath| Buying Online| Choosing a Wine| Price Range| Types of Wine| Grape Varieties| Other Decisions