Are There Calories in Wine ?

Calories in Wine

Depending on the wine, one glass of wine can range between 110 – 300 calories. The range has to do with alcohol content, inherent sweetness of the wine, and serving size. The following information will give you some familiar examples of wines and how many calories they have by the glass. I’m not advocating you only drink low calorie wine, but it never hurts to be familiar with the calorie count.

A glass of wine can range from 110–300 calories

Understanding Calories in Wine

Alcohol is Very High in Calories Per Gram

The highest calorie wines tend have the highest alcohol content. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram versus carbohydrates (sugar), which have 4 calories per gram.This means some sweet wines have less calories than some dry wines! Dry wines are commonly considered to range from around 11% alcohol to around 14%. However, a quick check of alcohol percentages of wines at the grocery store shows that many dry wines often exceed 15%. A standard 6 oz glass of dry wine with 15% alcohol has 175 calories.

Warm regions make higher alcohol wine!

Wines with typically higher alcohol content come from warmer growing regions where higher sugar content in grapes converts to higher alcohol content in wine. Dry wines with typically higher alcohol percentages are Zinfandel, Amarone, Shiraz and Grenache-Syrah-Mouvedre (GSM).

Super high alcohol sweet wines wines like Port, Tawny Port & Banyuls are a double whammy of sugar-carb calories, plus alcohol calories. To make Port wine, neutral grape spirits are added in order to halt the yeast from eating the sugars and leave sweetness in the wine. Port has 20% ABV and around 100 g/L of residual sugar. A standard 2 oz glass of port has 103 calories.

Sugar in Champagne & Sparkling Wines

Champagnes and sparkling wines have added sugar and alcohol. The added amount is called “le dosage” and it’s added during the champagne making process. The dosage can range from nothing (aka “Brut Nature” or “Brut Zero”) to sweet (aka “Doux”) with up to 50 g/L of sugar. The laws on the Champagne region in France require the wines to be no more than 12.5% alcohol. However, non-Champagne bubbly ranges from very light, at around 9% alcohol, to high, at 15%. For a standard 5 oz pour, Champagne ranges from 124 calories (Brut Zero) to 175 calories (Doux).