I am hoping, REAAALLYYY hoping it can be a bubbles night tonight because bubbles are meant for celebrating and the Giants are in the final game of the World Series. I’m afraid I’m going to get in trouble for talking about it too much before the game so I will leave it at that for now and tell you a little something fun about sparkling wine instead. GO GIANTS!

Maybe I’m just totally out of it but until recently I never had a clue what words like Brut, Extra Brut and Sec meant on sparkling wine or champagne. I always assumed it was part of the name of the wine but it turns out it’s an indication of the sweetness level of the juice inside the bottle.

The most widely consumed are Brut and Extra Dry (also called extra sec). A helpful thing to know…when a wine is “dry” it means it has no noticeable sweetness when tasted, but when a wine is “off-dry” it means it is just slightly sweet. Here’s a snapshot of the sweetness scale for sparkling wines.

Extra Brut: very dry, less than 0.6% sugar per liter
Brut: dry, less than 1.2% sugar per liter
Extra Dry (or extra sec): off-dry (or slightly sweet), 1.2% – 1.7% sugar per liter
Sec: slightly sweet, 1.7% – 3.2% sugar per liter
Demi Sec: sweet, 3.2% – 5% sugar per liter

Mumm Napa Cuvee M, Napa CA, aromas of sweet strawberry and raspberry but with stone fruit flavors like peach and pear with a caramel and brioche element, this bottle was a gift but it can be found on sale for $16.99 online