French word meaning ‘crude’ or ‘raw’, adapted by the champagne industry for wines made without (much) added sweetening or dosage. It has come to be used widely for any sparkling wine to indicate one that tastes bone dry. The upper limit for the residual sugar of a brut champagne has been reduced from 15 to 12 g/l. A wine labelled extra brut should contain less than 6 g/l residual sugar. Particularly dry wines may be labelled brut nature, with less than 3 g/l residual sugar and are made without dosage. The word bruto may be used in Portugal.
