How Many Glasses of Wine in a Bottle?
We’ve all been there. You’re planning a party and guessing how much wine to buy when someone inevitably poses the question: How many glasses of wine are in a bottle?
The answer is relevant in any scenario, whether you’re ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant, bringing friends to a tasting, or simply pouring out the vino at home.
The general rule of thumb is that a 750ml bottle of wine contains approximately four to five glasses of wine. However, this amount will vary depending on alcohol content, occasion, or the type of wine you’re drinking.
So let’s explore, once and for all, the answer to how many glasses in a bottle of wine.
What Are the Different Sizes of Wine Glasses?
While wine glasses can come in all shapes and sizes, we have standard measurements for different types.
- A standard white wine glass ranges from 8-12 ounces or 236-360 ml.
- A standard red wine glass ranges from 12-14 ounces or 360-415 ml.
- A standard champagne flute ranges from 5-8 ounces or 148-236 ml.
These numbers are the max amount of liquid each glass can hold. However, a standard pour of wine is usually five or six ounces.
Wine glasses are intentionally designed with extra room for aeration or, to put in simpler terms, swirling. You should have plenty of room in your glass to swirl the wine and release its aromas.
Note that at a restaurant or in a formal setting, your wine pour may also depend on the alcohol content of the wine, measured as alcohol by volume or ABV.
For example, a glass of sparkling wine may have an ABV of 7%, and you can serve it in fairly standard glass sizes. On the other hand, a fortified dessert wine can have upwards of 20% ABV, so you should plan to pour it in much smaller servings. Thus, your sparkling wine bottle may have four servings, while your dessert wine bottle could have more like 10 to 12.
To estimate how many glasses of wine are in a bottle, let’s look at different bottle sizes.
What Are the Different Sizes of Wine Bottles?
While wine bottles seem to come in different shapes and sizes, we do have some reasonably standard sizes to go by. Let’s look at the three main bottle sizes.
A Standard Bottle of Wine
Let’s say you want to order a cabernet sauvignon for you and a friend. But how many glasses would you each get? What if there’s a third friend? Should you get two bottles?
A standard bottle of red like a cabernet has 750 ml of wine or a little over 25 ounces. At a restaurant, a standard pour of wine will be six ounces. So, with a little easy math, we get four glasses with a bit leftover.
Our rule of thumb for a standard bottle of red or white wine is to estimate four glasses per bottle with a little extra at the end to top you off.
A Bottle of Dessert Wine
Now we’ll move on to dessert wine. As we mentioned earlier, dessert wine is often higher in alcohol content. While a bottle of pinot noir may ring in at 13.5% ABV, a dessert wine, like port, will often have 20% ABV.
So, the glass size and bottle size are often smaller for dessert wines.
While a regular bottle of red is 750 ml, a dessert wine often comes in half-size 375 ml bottles, or 12.6 ounces. For a glass of dessert wine, you’ll typically pour only about three ounces at a time so that a half-size bottle would contain around four glasses, and a standard size would have eight.
Sparkling Wines
Sparkling wines have the most extensive range of bottle sizes, from small single-serving bottles to the giant 30-liter Midas bottle made by the champagne brand Ace of Spades, which can hold around 200 glasses of bubbly.
However, a standard bottle of champagne is the same size as a standard bottle of red or white wine and contains 750 ml. This amount will serve about four to five glasses of champagne.
Just make sure you’re reading the label and know the volume of the bottle you’re buying. You can assume one glass of wine is about 150 ml or around five ounces. Divide the bottle’s volume in milliliters by 150, and you’ll have your approximate number of glasses.
Do Differently Shaped Bottles Have the Same Amount of Wine?
Again, the key here is to read your labels! Check the label for the total volume of the bottle to be sure what you’re getting. However, most standard bottles are 750 ml, regardless of the shape.
The three most standard wine bottle shapes are:
- Bordeaux: most common wine bottle shape with straight sides, narrow neck, and broad shoulders, used for wines like cabernet sauvignon
- Burgundy: pear-shaped with lightly sloped shoulders, often used for wines like pinot noir, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc
- Flute: tall and narrow with tapering neck, used most commonly for Rieslings
How Much Wine Should You Serve Per Person?
Now that we know how to estimate roughly how many glasses of wine in a bottle, we can also consider different occasions.
- Dinner at Home: You should plan to serve around three glasses per person, which would be about two 750 ml bottles for every two people.
- At a Restaurant: A restaurant will typically pour a six-ounce glass of wine, which will mean four glasses per bottle with a little leftover. If you and your friend split the bottle, you’ll each get two glasses with a final top off.
- At a Wine Tasting or Wine and Cheese Night: Since you’ll be sampling several wines, you want to be sure to pour smaller glasses. Plan for each glass to be about two ounces or 60 ml.
- Dessert Wine: As we mentioned before, a dessert wine pour should be about three ounces or 90 ml per glass. A standard bottle will have eight glasses.
As always, remember to drink responsibly!
Final Thoughts
Deciphering how much wine to buy or order doesn’t have to be complicated! Remember, a good rule of thumb is that a standard bottle of wine will provide four to five glasses. Use our tips above to get estimates for different types and occasions as well.
