Let’s answer one of the most frequently asked questions I receive during wine tastings:
How many calories does a bottle or glass of wine contain?
This next question is never far behind:
Where do calories in a bottle of wine come from?
Most people enjoy having a glass of wine to relax and socialise. However, now we’re more aware of diet, health and how we exercise and as restrictions on movement are extended we need now, more than ever before, to relax with peace of mind.
Calories in wine are produced both from alcohol and sugar; in particular alcohol adds more calories to the finished product (about seven calories per gram) than sugar does (about four calories per gram).
Low- calorie wines, are naturally low- calorie and specifically produced to have fewer calories, these should keep you from thinking too deeply.
Naturally low- calorie wines will be dry, low in alcohol and hovering around 10% alcohol by volume (ABV).
Cooler winemaking regions usually produce lower- alcohol (therefore lower- calorie) wines because the grapes don’t produce as much sugar. Less sugar for yeast to ferment means less alcohol in the wine.
The other major source for calorific wine, is sugar. When grapes have a high natural sugar content, yeast doesn’t always get to all the sugar, leaving what is known as residual sugar in the final wine.
Less residual sugar means fewer calories, since each gram of sugar has four calories.
In short, if you are choosing a drier but more alcoholic wine over a sweeter but less alcoholic one, the more alcoholic wine will probably have more calories than the sweeter one.
To simplify, Gruner Veltliner, Muscadet, and dry Riesling are naturally low-calorie white wines. If you are more into reds, look for Barbera, Gamay, and low- alcohol Pinot Noir.
According to Frank Schieber, professor at the University of South Dakota, the standard amount of sugar is as follows (in grams per liter):
Based on what we just said about alcohol and sugar, a regular bottle of wine (750ml) has an average of 600 calories, more alcoholic and sweeter wines will have more alcohol and sugar than drier wines.
For example:
A red wine (14,5% abv) will have around 610 calories per bottle, so 122 per serving (a glass of 150ml).
A less alcoholic red wine (12,5% abv) will have around 525 calories per bottle, so 105 per serving (a glass of 150ml).
Usually red wines are more alcoholic and so generally we can say that reds are usually more calorific than white or rosé wines.
Rosé wines contain between 102 and 122 calories per 150ml and they are the least caloric of the three.
White wines contain between 107 and 117 calories per 150ml.
Red wines contain between 110 and 130 calories per 150ml.
While choosing the right wine for your body weight you may consider using this information for. Anyway my suggestion is to always look at the percentage of ABV (Alcohol By Volume) and choose the less alcoholic one.
Going back to where we started…
The recommended average amount of calories per day for men is between 2000 and 2200 and for women this is between 1600 and 1800, both not practising any sports.
If during quarantine you happen to drink half a bottle of low calorie wine per day (so at least an average of 300 calories) and you don’t put on too much weight, you may reconsider your drinking habits!
