Calorie Counter For Wine

 

People are always asking us what is the calorie content of wine, and with the holidays coming up I thought I would share a simple calorie count approach to figuring out the calories in a glass of wine.

First off, the calorie content of red's, rosé's and white's is almost identical, so I will not make a distinction based on color. The thing you really need to worry about is alcohol and sugar content.

Dry Wines

I will define a dry wine as any wine with less than one percent residual sugar (RS). To estimate the calorie content of these wines multiply the number of ounces you are drinking times the alcohol content (% by volume) and then multiply by 1.6.

For example, suppose you were having 5 ounces of white burgundy at 13% alcohol by volume. The calories would be, approximately:

Ounces of wine x alcohol % x 1.6 = calories

5 oz x 13 % x 1.6 calories per oz-% = 104 calories

 

Off-Dry Wines

Off-dry wines are typically defined as being between 1 and 4 % residual sugar. I will use 2.5 % as an average. For off-dry wines the multiplier becomes 4. For example, suppose you were having 5 ounces of a German Spätlese at 8% alcohol by volume. Many off-dry wines are lower in alcohol than dry wines, so the calories would be, approximately:

Ounces of wine x alcohol % x 4 = calories

5 oz x 8% x 4 calories per oz-% = 160 calories

Dessert and Fortified Wines

Many late harvest wines are lower in alcohol and considerably higher in sugar while lower in alcohol content, while a fortified wine is high in alcohol and sugar content. The approach is the same, except we will use a multiplier of 10, also we usually only consume 1 to 2 ounces of a dessert or fortified wine in a serving. For example, suppose you were having 2 ounces of a Ruby Port at 18% alcohol by volume. The calories would be, approximately:

Ounces of wine x alcohol % x 10 = calories

2 oz x 18% x 10 calories per oz-% = 360 calories

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