What do trocken, halbtrocken and brut mean?
Sweetness levels are regulated to the gram, but not the same way for still and sparkling wine. A trocken sekt is sweeter than a brut.
UVA Import · 28 October 2026 · 2 min read
Trocken means dry, halbtrocken off-dry, and brut is dry for sparkling wine. All three are defined in EU rules, with limits in grams of residual sugar per litre. But the limits are not the same for still and sparkling wine, and that sets a trap: a sekt labelled "trocken" is sweeter than one labelled "brut".
Still wine
| Term | Residual sugar |
|---|---|
| Trocken (dry) | max 4 g/l, or max 9 g/l when the acidity is high enough |
| Halbtrocken (off-dry) | max 12 g/l, or max 18 g/l when the acidity is high enough |
| Lieblich (medium sweet) | max 45 g/l |
| Süß (sweet) | at least 45 g/l |
The acidity condition is the rule that makes German Riesling make sense. A wine with 8 grams of sugar and 7 grams of acidity tastes dry, because the acid balances the sugar. That is why it may be called trocken as long as the acidity is no more than 2 grams below the residual sugar. For halbtrocken the margin is 10 grams.
Pinot Blanc Trocken from Paulinshof and Spätburgunder Trocken from Bauer both carry trocken on the label.
Sparkling wine
| Term | Residual sugar |
|---|---|
| Brut nature | under 3 g/l, with no sugar added after the second fermentation |
| Extra brut | 0-6 g/l |
| Brut | under 12 g/l |
| Extra trocken (extra dry) | 12-17 g/l |
| Trocken (sec, dry) | 17-32 g/l |
| Halbtrocken (demi-sec) | 32-50 g/l |
| Mild (doux) | over 50 g/l |
This is the trap. For sparkling wine the driest common term is brut, and "trocken" on a sekt means 17 to 32 grams, more than twice the limit for brut.
Riesling Crémant Brut from Paulinshof is a brut, made by the traditional method with more than 36 months on the lees.
Feinherb
Feinherb is not in the rules. It is the producer's own word for wines around and just above off-dry, and we have written a separate article on feinherb.
In short
On still wine, trocken is the driest term. On sparkling wine it is brut, and trocken is a step sweeter. More on sekt in our article on German sparkling wine.