Updated August 2026.
A 750 mL bottle of typical table wine is about five 5-ounce pours and about five US standard drinks at 12% ABV — and about 600–650 calories if you use USDA’s table-wine line of roughly 120–125 kcal per 5 ounces. Alcohol is 7 kcal per gram. Residual sugar adds more. A 14.5% cabernet is not the 12% NIAAA example. Dessert and fortified wines are another math problem.
NIAAA (updated December 2025): one standard drink is 14 g alcohol, illustrated as 5 ounces of 12% wine. 750 mL is 25.36 US fluid ounces, so 25.36 ÷ 5 ≈ 5.07 pours. At 12% that is about 5.1 standard drinks; at 14% about 5.9. Calories are not printed on most US wine labels. Do not treat 600 as a lab value for every bottle.
Worked bottle math
| Bottle | Std drinks in 750 mL | Calorie note |
|---|---|---|
| 12% dry table (NIAAA example) | ~5.1 | USDA red table ~125 kcal / 5 oz → ~630 / bottle |
| 13.5% dry red | ~5.7 | More ethanol; often ~680–720 if dry |
| 14.5% ripe red | ~6.1 | Often 700+; still not a fortified |
| 11% light dry white | ~4.6 | Lower ethanol; still not “zero” |
| Fortified (port ~20%) | ~8.4 if 20% | NIAAA uses 3–4 oz as one drink at ~17% |
| Sweet / dessert | Use ABV | Sugar calories on top of ethanol |
USDA FoodData Central “wine, table, red” is about 125 kcal per 5 fl oz serving; “wine, table, all” is about 83 kcal per 100 g (a 5 oz glass is heavier than 100 g). We are using the 5-ounce serving row, not inventing a winery lab sheet. Sparkling at 12% is the same ethanol math as still. See champagne ABV and how much wine to get drunk.
A bottle split four ways is still more than one drink each at 12%. NIAAA binge pattern (5 drinks in about two hours for men; 4 for women) is a health line, not a target. Do not drive.
Sources
- NIAAA standard drink (December 2025): 5 oz at 12% = 14 g alcohol.
- USDA FoodData Central table wine: ~125 kcal / 5 fl oz red; ~83 kcal / 100 g “table, all.”
- Ethanol 7 kcal/g. Residual sugar not on most labels bottle-specific kcal.