The best wines are the one we drink with friends. And, when drinking with friends who count calories, right? However, that’s not the case anymore. People have become a lot more health-conscious than they were ever before. This is the reason that they keep a count of every calorie that goes inside their body. As a matter of fact, when it comes to drinking – “how many calories in red wine are there?” – This is one of the first questions that they ask. The answer to this question, however, does not have or should we say cannot have a one-word answer ever.
To tackle this question red wine calories per ounce and various other questions similar to this one, we are here with this post. In this post, we are going to shed light on topics such as how many calories in a glass of red wine or bottle of red wine and more. Without beating too much around the bush, let us straight away get to the topic –
Calories in Red Wine
This is a topic which is quite subjective. First of all, calories depend upon the type/brand of wine you are drinking. For instance, a red wine like Barbera is going to give you 125 calories per drink (5Oz), while a red wine like Burgundy is going to give you 127 calories. Therefore, the answer to your question depends entirely on what you are drinking.
For wines like Pinot Noir and Cabernet, Syrah it can go a little more down at 121 and 122 calories respectively. You can see it quite clearly that the number of calories in a glass of red wine is directly proportional to the brand you are consuming on that very day.
How Many Should You Drink?
The second question that comes right after the discussion of how many calories in glass of sweet red wine are there is – how many glasses should one ideally drink then? Similar to the question asked above, the answer to this one is also quite subjective.
Ask an oenophile and they will give you more than plenty of reasons to have more than just a couple of glasses of red wine. Ask a person who is too health-conscious and they might stop you just after getting one drink thinking the number of how many calories in a bottle of red wine 750 ml.
Therefore, it entirely depends whether you are drinking in the company of someone who loves their drinks or someone who is just there for having a good time.
Red Wines Are Good For Hearth
If you follow the news or social media, you would certainly have certainly read articles stating the benefits of drinking red wine without worrying about the calorie in red wine. Are they really true? How much fact lies underneath the statement – drinking red wine is good for your hearth?
Well, the answer to this question is – red wine (owing to the high amount of anti-oxidants that it contains) is actually good for health. In fact, there are studies that have shown moderate wine intake as a good source of bringing down your stress levels. One can say that controlled wine drinking can eventually be a good habit.
At the same time, however, it is also worth mentioning that health benefits and calories in red wine are two separate topics. You cannot compare the number of calories in red wine and the benefits it brings like stress reduction and all, coz both are to some extent unrelated.
Does It Really Matter?
To understand this better, we need to focus on two things. First – before counting calories per glass of wine, remember wine contains alcohol which comes from the fermentation of sugar in grape juice. This leads us the second fact – calories in wine are therefore not just from the alcohol but from the sugar content of the fruits as well.
Now, it is worth mentioning here that the calorie content of alcohol is almost twice as much as sugar. To put in exact number of red wine calories per glass, calorie content of sugar is 4 grams whereas the same for alcohol is almost double the value. So it ultimately comes down to the alcohol content that matters for counting the calories in a bottle of the red wine. Higher the abv value, higher is going to be the number of calories in it.
Let us take an example. Suppose you are consuming a glass wine with 11% alcohol content and another glass of wine with 15% alcohol content. The number of calories in the latter is going to be obviously a lot higher in the second case. Rather than asking how many calories in a glass of red wine, ask for the abv of red wine that you are going to have and then decide.
That’s what really matters!
Is There Any Way To Avoid These Calories?
That’s going to be a million-dollar question. And, the answer to this is – making smart choices.
You might be wondering what all smart choices we are talking about here. Well, the simple answer to this question is by going for dry wines. Yes, dry wines which are a little costly on the pocket.
But let’s get it straight – you cannot expect to get a cheap $10 wine to give you the same alcoholic content and calorie value that a wine bottle priced at $50 is going to give.
As a matter of fact, calories in a bottle of red wine which is priced cheaper is always going to be a little more because makers usually pour a lot of cheap sugar content in them. Therefore, red wines calories per ounce in such bottles is way more than the ones that have lesser sugar content. And, hence the difference.
Here are a few other expert tips on how you can bring down the calories in red wine:
- Look for wines from cooler regions
For instance, if you are looking to buy a bottle of California wine, stay away from regions such as Temecula to get less calories in a 6 oz bottle of red wine because the fruits i.e. grapes in those regions are very ripe.
This leads to more sugar content in them and hence more sugar in the alcohol. Therefore, by being a little savvy in buying wines you can eventually cut down the number of calories in a glass of red wine that you are going to consume.
- Better go for wines from France
This is another smart choice you can make – buy wines from the country of wines aka FRANCE! The reason behind this low number of red wine calories per bottle is simple – the wines from this country generally don’t have any additional sugar added to them during the fermentation process. Also, French wines are a little low in alcohol content and hence they automatically have less red wine calories per ounce.
So, you can see for yourself – almost everything you need to know about the calories in red wine that you are going to consume. Whether you intend to grab just a glass of red wine calories for the night or want to indulge in driving a lot more than just a couple of glasses, these smart choices can really help you bring the calorie intake down.
The next time you are going to drink wine – calories in a glass of wine is really not going to matter when you already have made this smart choice while buying the bottle of wine.
