Wine: Sweetness & Weight

One of the main distinctions — after red and white — that is bandied about by wine drinkers is whether a particular quaff is sweet or dry. Though imagining how a fluid can be dry is something of a logical stretch, just bear in mind that dry is nothing more than the opposite of sweet, and we all know what sweet tastes like. A related factor is the weight of a particular type of wine, which refers to the amount of alcohol present in a given sample.

Sweetness
RED
Pinot Noir (sweetest)
Zinfandel
Cabernet
Syrah (shiraz)
Merlot (driest)

WHITE
Riesling (sweetest)
Chardonnay
Chenin Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc
Brut (driest)

Weight
RED
Merlot (lightest)
Zinfandel
Chianti
Pinot Noir
Cabernet (heaviest)

WHITE
Brut (lightest)
Fume Blanc
Pinot Grigio
Riesling

Chardonnay (heaviest)

(source)