How many calories are in a bottle of red wine? Here’s how to find out

If you are a wine lover, just like us, you will keep yourself updated about all the benefits that wine brings to health: among them, researchers from prestigious universities have discovered that drinking red wine could prolong life or that there are connections between the fight against dementia and the consumption of Champagne thanks to the phenolic acids contained in Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the other side of the coin: alcohol is a caloric food and is fattening, so we should limit its ingestion. But how many calories are contained in a bottle of red wine?

Red wine and calories

The general rule is very simple: the more the alcohol contained within your bottle of wine, the more the calories. After all, the grape with which the wine is produced contains sugars, which during the fermentation process turns into alcohol: therefore more sugars, more alcohol. To further clarify the picture, in fact, it is enough to think that alcohol contains on average 7 calories per gram against 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates: this gives an idea of ​​the amount of caloric intake that even a single glass of wine can add to our daily diet.

The formula for calculating calories in a bottle of red wine

Starting from this data, which is also a bit overwhelming in itself, we can easily calculate the calories contained in a bottle of red wine.

The data we will need for filling the formula is the following:

• How much alcohol is contained in our wine? This detail is written on the label of each bottle and it is indicated as a percentage.
• How many calories does alcohol contain? As mentioned above, the caloric content of alcohol is 7 calories per gram.
• What is the specific weight of alcohol? The specific weight of the alcohol is 0.79 kg / l
• How much wine is contained in the bottle? This data is also shown on the label: the most common bottles contain 75 cl of wine.

Once these data have been marked, to calculate the number of calories in our bottle of wine we should do nothing but apply this mathematical formula:

Calories = quantity of alcohol * specific weight * energy value of alcohol

Let’s take a practical example on a bottle of our organic Italian red wine Podere della Bruciata Barcaiolo Chianti Colli Senesi 2012: on the label, the indicated ABV is 14.5% and the wine contained is 75 cl, so our formula will be:
Calories = (14.5 / 100 * 75 cl) * 0.79 gr / ml * 7 cal / gr

How many calories in a bottle of red wine?

Aren’t you good at math? No problem! Keep this in mind: there are two types of red wine, a lower alcohol red and a higher alcohol red; on average, the lower alcohol red contains from 135 to 165 calories per glass, therefore between 810 and 990 calories per bottle. On the other hand, the calories contained in a higher alcohol red bottle range from 990 to 1200 calories and more.

Now that we have made things clear, don’t be afraid: as we always say, the important thing is to not overindulge; continue to enjoy your glass of wine, perhaps now with more awareness and paying attention to lead an active life full of healthy habits.