Term (also residual sweetness, RS) for the amount of sugar in the wine that is achieved by a natural end to fermentation or by stopping fermentation. The yeasts are removed, killed or at least strongly inhibited in their activity by various methods during winemaking. These include filtering the fermenting wine (removing the yeast cells), cooling to minus 3 to 2 °C (resting), sulphurisation, short-term heating to 75 °C or, for certain wines, the addition of pure alcohol or Spriten (killing).
The residual sugar consists mainly of the sugar type fructose (fruit sugar), because glucose (grape sugar) is converted more quickly into alcohol and carbon dioxide, as well as a small proportion of non-fermentable sugars (pentoses).
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