Dry cider, dry wine etc

A serious question (ie I'm not jesting), but having just opened a bottle of Henney's Dry Cider, I got to wondering, how can it be dry? How can dry wines exist?

Clearly they are very wet, otherwise they'd be very difficult to drink, so what make a cider or wine get called 'dry'?

 

Probably because it feels dry on the tongue. Even though it's wet.

 

The dry roasted peanuts I'm filling my face with feel dry. The dry cider feels quite wet

 

Never had dry cider (that I can remember) my favourite drink is cider, though. How does it compare to the normal wet kind?

 

Dryness has noting to do with the wetness of the wine. It refers to the feeling left in the mouth after the wine is swallowed. Because of the tannic acid the mouth is unable to create fresh saliva and therefore your mouth feels dry. Because of this, most people who enjoy red wines either with a meal or standing alone, a glass of water is usually close by. By taking a sip of water the mouth is allowed to create saliva and the dry effect is removed.

Found this explanation.......

 

Why would anyone want that though?
Wet wine you can see how that mite take off....

 

Dry refers to the level of sweetness. If there are still unfermented sugars then its Sweet, if all the sugar has been fermented out then its Dry.

 

From: The National Guild of Wine and Beer Judges

The bitterness bit means stuff like tannin content, and it's recognisable sweetness by taste, not actual residual sugar content.

 

9.am and we are in the wine thread :o

 

Been one of those nights.:D

 

12:00 in less than 2 hours!