Residual Sugar

Natural grape sugar that remains in wine because it has not been converted into ALCOHOL during FERMENTATION. Wines that taste dry can nonetheless have a tiny amount of residual sugar in them. Winemakers often leave small amounts of sugar in wine to make it seem rounder and more appealing (sweetness has a slight fat feeling to it). Wine producers are not required to list residual sugar content on labels.

What wine was served during the signing of the Declaration of Independence?

A. Champagne

B. Madeira

C. Port

D. Bordeaux

Madeira. Ultimately, no wine would become more a part of the United States’ beginning. Not only was Madeira drunk by the founding fathers during the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the wine was also what Francis Scott Key sipped as he composed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” George Washington (who reportedly drank a pint every night with dinner), Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin all adored it. By the end of the eighteenth century, nearly a fourth of all the Madeira produced was being exported to the American colonies.

Read Karen’s People to Know interview with Bartholomew Broadbent, who helped revive Madeira-drinking in America here. And her review of several Madeira bottlings is here.

“The best wines are those that take you through themselves and out into another world that you could not have gotten to on your own. Great wine has a strange subterranean current of beauty. It is not something you can summon from a wine; but a great wine can take you there.”

—Terry Theise
Wine importer and author

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