One of the most frequently asked questions about wine is how many glasses of wine are in a bottle? The answer to this can be straight forward, but there are a number of different things that can be taken into account that can change the outcome.
In most cases, with a standard sized bottle and a standard sized pour, you should get about 5 glasses of wine out of a bottle. A typical 750ml bottle of wine holds 25 liquid ounces, while the standard wine pour, you’d get at a restaurant is usually around 5 ounces.
The size of the pour can change though based on the type of wine you’re getting. If the wine you’re drinking has a higher alcohol content, there’s a good chance that your pour will be closer to 4 ounces instead of 5.
Keep in mind that these are the typical standards when visiting a restaurant. How much wine you pour into your glass at home is probably going to be a bit more than what you would receive at a restaurant because you are not in the business of selling wine, but rather enjoying it.
So if you want to pour yourself an 8-10 ounce glass of wine and sip on it, keep in mind that you’re not going to get 5 glasses of wine out of a standard bottle. You just want to be careful that you don’t run out of wine if you have guests over when pouring a little heavier than normal.
What Are the Different Sizes of Wine Bottles?
As we said, a standard bottle of wine is 750ml, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only size bottle you can buy.
Obviously buying a larger bottle of wine will allow you to pour more glasses, so let’s take a look at the different sizes of wine bottles and how many glasses you’d be able to get out of them with a standard pour.
Piccolo or Split Bottle – This bottle is 187.5ml and you typically find these used for single serve Champagne. This bottle is just over 6 ounces of liquid and would give a good-sized single pour.
Demi or Half Bottle – This bottle is exactly half of a standard bottle of wine coming in at 375ml or a little more than 12.5 fluid ounces, which will net you about 2.5 glasses of wine at the standard 5-ounce pour.
Standard Bottle – A standard bottle of wine is 750ml, or 25 fluid ounces, and will net you about 5 glasses of wine.
Magnum Bottle – A magnum bottle of wine is 1.5L, or 50 ounces (double the standard), so you will be able to get about 10 glass of wine from this bottle.
Double Magnum Bottle – A double magnum is twice the size of a magnum bottle coming in at 3L, or about 100 ounces, which will net you about 20 glasses of wine. Fun fact, box wine is also typically 3L and should allow you about 20 glasses of wine with a traditional 5-ounce pour.
There are larger bottles of wine that can be purchased, but once you start getting larger than the Double Magnum it would probably just be better to purchase a couple of them instead of these larger sized bottles.
It’s hard to store the larger bottles and if you open them and don’t finish them, you could let a lot of wine go to waste.
Different Wine Pours
While a typical restaurant pour of wine is going to be 5 ounces on average, there are circumstances where they could be slightly more or less.
If you order a wine with a higher or lower alcohol content, the pour could be slightly more than 5 ounces if the alcohol content is less, or it could be slightly less than 5 ounces if the alcohol content is more. You will sometimes see higher alcohol content wine being served with a 5-ounce pour but keep an eye on the price as the restaurant may be charging a bit more for the extra ounce than with another wine.
If you’re doing a wine tasting, or a flight of wine, your pours are also going to be less than 5-ounces since you’ll be trying multiple different wines.
A typical tasting wine pour is going to be around 2 ounces. While a typical wine flight is going to give you between 4-6 different wines to try. This would equate to about 1.5 – 2.5 regular glasses of wine depending on how many wines are in the flight.
Knowing the typical wine pour, and how much wine is in a standard bottle of wine, will help you better plan for events and gatherings. If you know many guests you expect, you can determine how many bottles of wine you may need.
This is important because you would rather not be left with an almost full bottle fine at the end of the night. Wine will start to go bad once it has been opened, so finishing off a bottle of wine after you’ve started drinking it is the best way to ensure that you’re getting the proper flavors that the winemaker intended.