Guide
Is Bordeaux dry or sweet?
Red is dry, white is dry unless it says otherwise, and a handful of appellations make nothing but sweet wine. The label tells you which.
The short answer
Dry, unless the label says otherwise. Red Bordeaux is dry, with a little leeway for the light Claret; a white is dry unless its name or label says sweet. The sweet wines are whites:
Red is dry, with one light exception
Every red wine sold as Bordeaux is dry. The cahier des charges of the Bordeaux appellation (its official rulebook), in the version of May 13, 2026, caps a red at 3 grams of fermentable sugar a liter. The same holds all the way up: a
The exception dates from 2025. Bordeaux Claret, a light red whose labeling term was approved in 2025, may be sweetened with grape must, and it may keep up to 7 grams when its acidity is high enough. It is pale, low in tannin, and made to drink young, often chilled.
A second door opened on November 27, 2025. The INAO's wine committee allowed any appellation to permit the sweetening of dry still wines up to 9 grams a liter, provided its own cahier adopts the option. How dry a red must be therefore depends on each rulebook.
White is dry unless it tells you otherwise
Several appellations make their white dry only.
The Bordeaux appellation itself allows both. A dry Bordeaux Blanc keeps 3 grams of sugar a liter or less, or up to 5 when its acidity is high enough. A white with more than 5 grams and less than 60 must show on its label the sweetness term that matches its sugar, the kind of word explained below. The rulebook makes the sweetness declare itself.
Some names mean sweet on their own
Some appellations make sweet white and nothing else, and their name on the label is the whole answer.
| Appellation | The sugar rule |
|---|---|
| At least 45 g/l left in the wine | |
| Same rules as | |
| At least 45 g/l left in the wine | |
| At least 45 g/l left in the wine | |
| At least 45 g/l left in the wine | |
| At least 51 g/l left in the wine, the highest minimum of the group | |
| At least 34 g/l left in the wine | |
| More than 34 g/l left in the wine |
Eight names, and not one dry bottle among them.
What sec, moelleux and liquoreux mean
Where an appellation allows more than one style, the label uses 3 French words, and the rules give each a number. The cahier of
- Sec, dry: 4 grams of sugar a liter or less, and the word must appear on the label.
- Moelleux, medium sweet: between 34 and 45 grams, and the word must appear.
- Liquoreux, fully sweet: more than 45 grams, from grapes picked by hand in successive passes.
Each appellation draws its own lines. Dry stops at 3 grams in Bordeaux, or 5 with high acidity, and at 4 in Saint-Macaire (opens in a new tab); in
Among the whites, the grapes are no help. The dry wines and the sweet ones come from the same Sémillon (opens in a new tab), Sauvignon Blanc (opens in a new tab), and Muscadelle (opens in a new tab), so the glass cannot tell you which is which. The label can.
Where to go next
Sources: Fédération des Grands Vins de Bordeaux, cahier des charges Bordeaux, arrêté du 13 mai 2026 · Fédération des Grands Vins de Bordeaux, cahier des charges