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Wine wordsWhat does "dry" mean in wine?
In wine, dry means the wine has little or no leftover sugar. Yeast turns grape sugar into alcohol, and a dry wine is one where nearly all of it was used up. That's all the word means.
It's easy to confuse with other sensations. A fruity wine can smell sweet and still be completely dry, and a puckering, mouth-drying feeling comes from tannin or acidity, not dryness. A Provence rosé and a Sauvignon Blanc are both dry, and neither feels dusty.