Why is wine called dry?

Because knits mouth, creating a sensation of dryness, “like sand in my mouth”

“Dry” referred to the wine in which very little sugar. Sensation of dryness in the mouth in the absence of sugar create tannins – polyphenols of natural origin that creates an astringent sensation (as from unripe persimmon). In wine they come from the solid parts of the grape: skin, bones, ridges, and also from the wood barrels.

Dry red wine is more tannic, ie feels more “dry” (stronger knits my mouth) than white, because its manufacture is contact of the wine with the skins of grapes for much longer.
While tannins are an important element of the complexity of red wine and its ability for long-term storage.

The sugar smooths out the tart sensation of dryness in the mouth caused by tannins, so the sweeter the wine, the less “dry” it seems.

The concept of “dryness” of wine in the value of the astringent tannin mouth – historical, but today is not used. In modern wine terminology, “dry” = “lack of sweetness”

In this sense, more dry – less sweet the wine may seem and because of other factors not related to tannins. Moreover, the actual presence of sugar (or rather, a number of sugars) is the main but not the only such factor. For example, it is believed that alcohol increases the subjective sweetness of the wine and acidity decreases.

Therefore, in particular, champagne is very acidic nature of wine – even legally use other levels of drynesssweetness: dry champagne, by law, can contain more sugar than simple quiet white wines of France.

In most countries, to “dry” will include red and white still wines with a sugar content not exceeding 4 g/l.

On the label this wine is marked with the word “dry”, without changing its meaning in a literal translation into the language of the label: dry (English)., sec (FR.), secco (Italian), trocken (it.) etc.