Shonen is Sweet Wine

Look over the most popular anime and manga the last ten years and chances are you’ll see a few commonalities, young male protagonist, copious amounts of fighting and a hint of fan service. Shonen anime, anime geared towards young boys is regularly the most popular genre of anime and many of our entry points into the medium. By design these stories carry mass appeal and are made approachable.

In the world of wine your starting point is usually sweeter wine(more appropriately called  off-dry wine, a wine with a degree of residual sugar in it.  Approachable and made for mass appeal your favorite starter wines are probably off-dry in style.

Off-dry wines can come in varying levels of quality at various price points. Despite what some wine “experts” will try to get you to believe liking off-dry wines is not a sign of an underdeveloped palette and lower price is not necessarily an indicator of lower equality. What makes a high quality off-dry wine is the balance between sugar and acid. Lower quality off-dry wines are overwhelmingly sugar filled with no discernible taste beyond fruit juice. Think of it like the difference between something fruit juice flavored and actual fruit juice. The real juice will be layered and the elements will be discernible from each other as you drink.  Here are some varietals to try that can produce high quality off-dry style wines.

 Riesling

Gewurztraminer

Lambrusco

 Pro tip: The next time you’re eating at a fancy restaurant and don’t know what kind of wine to order ask for their favorite off-dry selection instead of sweet wine. Actual sweet wine is usually syrupy in texture and best paired with desserts before or after the main course