Alcoholic fermentation

Alcoholic fermentation is carried out by Saccharomyces yeasts that transform sugars, particularly glucose, into ethyl alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat energy. The ethyl alcohol that is formed and is actually present in wine is ALCOHOL ALCOHOL (mandatory labelling) and is expressed as % vol.

Sweet wines have residual sugars and if these were fermented, they would be transformed into ethyl alcohol (POTENTIAL ALCOHOL), an optional label wording and expressed as % vol. The sum of developed alcohol and potential alcohol is called COMPLETE ALCOHOL. If, for example, the label reads 12 + 3 % vol, the 12 indicates the alcohol carried out while the 3 indicates the potential alcohol.