Is Your Red Wine Hiding a Secret Addiction?

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]But three, is something called residual sugar, the addiction in your red wine.

[00:00:04]The number in your wine that does not exist on the label because in the United States, wineries are not required to disclose it. Here's what RS means.

[00:00:11]During fermentation, yeast converts grape sugar into alcohol. A truly dry wine goes all the way. Almost no sugar remains, a couple of grams. But some Napa cabs, I'm talking about the mass market wines you see on the grocery store shelves, the ones doing millions of cases, the ones with the nice lifestyle labels and the clever names, Caymus, those are engineered to stop fermentation early. Or even worse, to add grape juice concentrate, called, get this, mega purple, back in after fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the bottle. Maybe 10, more like 15, sometimes 20 g per liter. Oh, it's so nasty. You don't consciously taste sweet. Your brain doesn't register this is sweet like candy, but it registers something. A softness, a richness, a fruitiness, a round, approachable, jammy finish that makes you want another sip, that your brain finds deeply satisfying because at a primal survival level, sugar is satisfying. Sugar is addictive.