Phrases › At a Wine Tasting › Questo vino è secco o abboccato?

Questo vino è secco o abboccato?

Is this wine dry or slightly sweet?

Pronunciation

Secco: SEK-ko. Abboccato: ab-bok-KAH-to. Both common Italian wine descriptors.

When to use it

Ask before tasting if you have a preference for dry or sweet wines. Also useful when you want to understand the wine's style better.

What it means

Secco means dry (no residual sugar). Abboccato means slightly sweet. The full scale is secco → abboccato → amabile → dolce (dry to very sweet). Knowing this helps you describe what you taste.

Variations

È un vino dolce?

Is it a sweet wine?

Dolce — sweet. A simple question for dessert wines.

Ha residuo zuccherino?

Does it have residual sugar?

Technical term — residuo zuccherino — used at serious tastings.

Mi sembra leggermente amabile.

It seems slightly sweet to me.

Amabile — medium sweet. Between abboccato and dolce.

Mini Dialogue

— Questo vino è secco o abboccato? — È secco, ma con una bella morbidezza. Non sente l'astringenza. — Ah sì, è molto vellutato in bocca. — Esatto! Per questo si abbina bene con i formaggi stagionati.

— Is this wine dry or slightly sweet? — It's dry, but with a lovely softness. You don't notice any astringency. — Ah yes, it's very velvety in the mouth. — Exactly! That's why it pairs well with aged cheeses.

Cultural Note

Italian wine terminology uses very specific words for sweetness levels. Passito wines (made from dried grapes) like Amarone and Recioto are examples of the Italian tradition of concentrating sweetness through drying — a technique dating back to ancient Rome.

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Si annusa prima di assaggiare.

Da quale vitigno è prodotto questo vino?

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