Are there health benefits to drinking a glass of sparkling wine? There are definitely some mixed reviews out there. And while there’s nutritional value in grapes, the verdict is till out on sparkling wine.
But we wine lovers won’t let that stop us from enjoying a glass of bubbly. So let’s talk about calories in sparkling wine because it’s a question I get all the time.
There is also a big misconception that all sparkling wines are sweet wines. And that is a big falacy. Just like still wines there is a different amount of sugar in each bottle of champagne or sparkling wine
- If you are you a fan of dry white wine you can find a sparkling dry wines as well.
- If you a fan of sweet wines or even sweet dessert wines, well, you can find sparkling sweet wines as well.
- If you are you a fan of , rosé wine you can find sparkling rosé wine as well.
No matter what style your favorite bottle of wine is, you should be able to find the type of wine you enjoy and the best option to not only celebrate any occasion, but one that won’t blow your diet as well.
And if you’re worried about the calorie count, you’re going to be very happy and ready to pop that bottle in celebration because you can drink your sparkling wine without any guilt. You’ve seen the meme about choosing between a glass of bubbly and a banana right? Always choose bubbly.
Sparkling Wine Serving
A standard serving size of wine is 5 oz which means each bottle will serve about 5 people. However, if you’re like me, your glass of champagne is not exactly the standard pour, but for the purpose of this post, all of the calculations for wine calories will be based on a 5 oz pour.
If you’ve been around here for a bit, you know one of my favorite things to do is host sparkling wine tastings. These are such a fun way to explore the different types of wine and to see what you really enjoy.
When you’re enjoying a sparkling wine tasting, the pours will be significantly smaller, but they can add up. Depending on where you go that tasting pour is generally 1 1/2- 2 oz pours. I like a 2 oz pour myself because it gives you a few sips to truly tell how you feel about the wine.
So, keep this in mind if you ever choose a wine tasting over a glass pour. Approximately 5 tasting pours equal one glass of sparkling wine. And then of course, you might want to revisit your favorite sparkling wine tastes just to be sure.
Sweetness Levels in Sparkling Wine
During the winemaking process, the winemaker has a decision to make on the sugar content of the wine. Obviously, grapes are naturally sweet and for sparkling wine after the second fermentation process (for sparkling wine made in the traditional method), the winemaker will decide if he needs to add dosage (a form of sweetness that could be wine and/or sugar (grams of sugar (g/l)) to make that perfect sparkling bottle of wine.
The levels of sweetness are marked on the bottle with terms like Brut Nature, Brut, Dry, etc. And trust me, I understand that those wine labels are confusing. You will be reading “dry” on the label, but in reality, for a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine, that really means it’s a sweet wine.
If you’re like me and don’t like a sparkling wine that is too sweet, then you grab a brut nature, extra brut or brut bottle of bubbly. These will also have the least amount of residual sugar which of course, will give you fewer calories and less sugar.
Here’s a quick guide to the amount of carbohydrates in the different sugar levels of sparkling wine.
- Brut Nature: less than 1g of carbs per serving
- Extra-Brut: up to 1g carbs per serving
- Brut: up to 1.8g carbs per serving
- Extra-Dry: Up to 2.5g carbs per serving
- Dry: up to 5g carbs per serving
- Demi Sec: up to 7.5g carbs per serving
- Doux (Sweet): more than 7.5g carbs per serving (approximately 10g/serving)
Calories in Sparkling Wine
Sparkling wines are a pretty good choice for the calorie-conscious drinker.
When calculating the calories in sparkling wine in addition to the 5 oz serving size the other consideration is sparkling wine that is 12% ABV (which most are).
- Brut Nature has about 90 calories per serving
- Extra Brut has 91–96 calories per serving
- Brut has 91–98 calories per serving
- Extra Dry has 98–101 calories per serving
- Dry has 101–111 calories per serving
- Demi Sec has 111–121 calories per serving
- Doux – has more than 121 calories per serving
Alcohol Calories
As with most alcoholic beverages the calories are in the mixers because most of those contain a lot of sugar, so stick with sparkling wine with the least amount of residual sugar and you will drink the lowest calories and carbohydrates.
Even when I mix up some of these delicious sparkling wine cocktails, since I don’t like sweet drinks, I try to use ingredients that don’t have that much sugar, but once you start using juice or simple syrup, it’s not that easy. As a general rule, the drinks I create are less sweet, but I do often times put out sweet sparkling wines to top it with for those who love sweet wines and sweet drinks.
HOT TIP:
When you’re reviewing your choices on which alcoholic beverage to drink, if it has a higher alcohol content (ABV), it will have more calories. If it has a lower ABV it will have less calories.
This is really easy to see on beer labels, but you can also find this information on your wine label as well. Most of the sparkling wines you find me sharing are about 12% ABV and it’s with your sweet wines and fortified wines will be higher alcohol content.
Nutritional Information
Now I have looked at my share of wine labels and rarely do they contain nutritional information, but I have seen some wine producers include it especially for these low-calorie wines that are become more and more popular.
I also review a lot of websites and tech sheets on wines for the wine tastings I host, and it’s rare that you will find nutritional content there as well.
Recently I have heard more winemakers say they are going to adjust their labels to include the nutritional information on it. So that will be something to look forward to.
The Bottom Line
As you know, we are all about popping the bubbly to celebrate any moment big or small. And we encourage you to do so as well.
So, needless to say, we do not feel guilty when popping the bubbly to celebrate even the most generic everyday moment. Everything in moderation, right?
Moments deserve to be celebrated and you should never feel guilty to do so. We totally respect a healthy lifestyle as you know I am an avid Peloton user and veggie lover. But I will not hesitate to pop a bottle of bubbly to celebrate any random moment.
I am sharing this information in the hopes of helping out those who are counting calories and/or carbs.
Bubbly Side of Life Communities
Thank you for being here. We truly appreciate that you took time to visit the blog. And we invite you to join us for some other bubbly fun!
For bubbly cocktail ideas that we talked about here, check out the blog.
On Instagram, you will see some behind the scenes, step by step videos, sparkling wine recommendations and be able to celebrate with us.
On Pinterest, you can easily organize your favorite posts and recipes onto your own boards so that you can access them when you want to create them.
On LTK (disclosure: I do receive a small commission), I post all of my bar supplies that I use every single week to create fun bubbly cocktails.
