Sweet is the amount of residual sugars in the wine and not the fruity characteristics. There are many different types of sweet white wines and vary in sweetness from semi sweet, sweet to semi dry. Some of these wines are produced from late harvest grapes. This process is where the vineyard waits for the last possible moment to harvest the grapes where their sugar levels are high. Another thing that affects the sweetness of a wine is noble rot. This happens in more moist conditions where fungus infects the vines causing the sugars to condense in the grapes. This sometimes leads to a very sweet wine. Another method of sweetening a wine is fortification, where brandy is added to a wine which stops the fermentation process leading to a sweeter wine with higher alcohol content. Some wines fall into a grey area for being categorized by sweetness and fall under the dessert wine category. The labels often indicate and hint at the level of sweetness. The alcohol percentage is one of the things to look at because the lower the percentage the sweeter the wine will be. It is easier to find sweet white wines rather than sweet red wines and some varietals are known to generally be sweet. Wines like Sauternes, Tokay, late harvest wines, and ice wines are among the sweetest you can find.