Calories in a Glass or Bottle of Wine

How many calories in a glass or bottle of wine? That depends on the type. See the chart for calories in various red and white table wines, dessert wines, and cooking wine. And read on to see what you should know about wine health benefits…

How Many Calories are there in Wine?

A 5 oz (148 ml) glass of red or white table wine has about 123 calories, while a bottle has about 624 calories. Dessert wines pack considerably more calories than their table wine cousins, filling you with about 161 calories per 3.5 oz (104 ml) glass or 1,167 calories per bottle. Calories do vary slightly between red and white wines, and also between wine grape varieties. See the charts below for the specific calories in various red wines, white wines, dessert wines, and cooking wine.

Calories from Alcohol vs. Sugar

Most of the calories in wine come from alcohol, which has 7 calories per gram. Most of the rest come from carbohydrates in the form of sugar, which has 4 calories per gram. But most table wines have relatively little sugar, so it’s mostly the alcohol content that drives the calories. For example, a more sweet wine such as Riesling has about 118 calories per 5 oz (148 ml) glass. It has about 5.5 grams of sugar, which is about 22 calories. So the alcohol accounts for over 80% of the calories. That’s why a dry wine with little sugar but more alcohol can have more calories than a sweet wine. For example, a glass of Merlot has less than one gram of sugar, but it has 122 calories — 5% more calories than the sweeter Riesling.

This may seem counter intuitive, but it actually makes sense because the alcohol in wine is made by fermenting the sugar. So a wine with more alcohol tends to have less sugar because the sugar has been used up during the fermentation process. And since alcohol has almost twice the calories as sugar, the higher alcohol wines have more calories. The one exception are dessert wines.

Portion Size Really Matters

The standard portion size for a glass of table wine is 5 oz (148 ml), as defined in by the USDA. For dessert wine, the standard serving size is only 3.5 oz (104 ml) per glass. So portion size really matters. If you are pouring more than 5 oz in your over-sized red wine glass, the calories can add up quickly. At 5 oz per glass, you should get about 5 glasses per bottle of wine. If you are getting less, then you may be getting 20% – 30% more calories per glass.

Dessert Wines Have the Most Calories

As you can see from the chart, dessert wines have the most calories. The standard serving size is only 3.5 oz (104 ml), but with 161 calories per 3.5 oz glass they pack 30% more calories than a standard 5 oz (148 ml) glass of red or white table wine. This is because they contain more alcohol and more sugar.

Cooking Wines

When you cook with wine, you lose between 60% and 95% of the alcohol. This cuts down substantially on the calories, since most of the wine calories in wine come from the alcohol.

Cooking with wine can be a great way to cut down the calories in a meal while wonderfully enhancing the flavor. You can use wine to reduce the amount of fat (and fat calories!) in your meals by substituting wine for part or all of the oil required in the recipe. Unfortunately, you wont’t get many of the health benefits found in wine, because most of those come from the alcohol. But you’ll be enhancing the flavor of you meals while you make them healthier by reducing the the calories you get from fat. So, it will still be better and healthier!