How many standard drinks are in a bottle of wine?
Most people would guess three or four glasses. The honest answer is that a single 750ml bottle of wine holds about 7 to 8 Australian standard drinks — and a strong red can push that close to nine. Here's the simple formula behind that number, a table by alcohol content, and what a bottle really means against the drinking guidelines.
The short answer
A standard 750ml bottle of wine at 13% ABV contains roughly 7.7 standard drinks. At 13.5% — a very common strength for Australian reds and whites — it's almost exactly 8. That's not a glass or two; it's most of a week's worth of drinking under the national guidelines, in one bottle.
The exact figure depends entirely on the alcohol content, which is why you'll see it printed on the label. In Australia, every packaged alcoholic drink is legally required to state the approximate number of standard drinks it contains, so you never have to guess — but it helps to understand where the number comes from.
What is an Australian standard drink?
An Australian standard drink contains 10 grams of pure alcohol, regardless of the type or size of the glass. That's the fixed unit behind every guideline and every label. Because 10 grams is a set weight, the volume that delivers it changes with strength:
- About 100ml of average-strength wine (~13%)
- 285ml (a pot/middy) of full-strength beer
- 30ml of spirits
The catch with wine is that a real-world glass is almost never 100ml. That gap is exactly why bottles hold more standard drinks than people expect. The Alcohol and Drug Foundation notes that a single standard drink of wine is smaller than most pours you'll be served.
The formula (it's genuinely simple)
You can work out the standard drinks in any container with one line of maths:
For a 750ml bottle at 13% ABV: 0.75 × 13 × 0.789 = 7.7 standard drinks.
The mysterious 0.789 is the specific gravity of ethanol — the weight of one litre of pure alcohol in kilograms. Its job is to convert the volume of alcohol in the bottle into its weight, so the answer lines up with the 10-grams-per-standard-drink rule. You only need the two numbers already on the label: how much liquid, and how strong.
Standard drinks by wine strength
Wine ABV varies more than people realise — light whites can sit near 11%, while big Barossa shiraz and many New World reds run to 14.5% or higher. Here's how a full 750ml bottle stacks up:
| Wine (750ml bottle) | Typical ABV | Standard drinks |
|---|---|---|
| Light white / Moscato | ~11% | ~6.5 |
| Prosecco / sparkling | ~11.5% | ~6.8 |
| Riesling / Pinot Grigio | ~12% | ~7.1 |
| Champagne / most sparkling | ~12.5% | ~7.4 |
| Chardonnay / Pinot Noir | ~13% | ~7.7 |
| Common red or white | ~13.5% | ~8.0 |
| Shiraz / Cabernet | ~14.5% | ~8.6 |
| Big red / fortified-leaning | ~15% | ~8.9 |
The pattern is clear: even the lightest bottle is more than six standard drinks, and anything from a full-bodied red is close to nine. A jump of just 1.5% ABV adds a whole extra standard drink to the bottle.
Why a bottle "disappears" faster than you'd think
If a bottle is eight standard drinks and a standard drink of wine is 100ml, a bottle should be around 7–8 glasses. So why does a bottle vanish in what feels like three or four?
Because almost nobody pours 100ml. Restaurant pours are usually 150ml, and a relaxed pour at home is often 200–250ml. Here's what that does:
| Pour | Size | Standard drinks (13–14% wine) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard drink measure | 100ml | ~1.0 |
| Restaurant pour | 150ml | ~1.5 |
| Relaxed home pour | 200ml | ~2.1 |
| Generous "one glass" | 250ml | ~2.8 |
Three generous home pours can be more than eight standard drinks — an entire bottle — even though it only felt like "a few glasses". This is the single biggest reason people underestimate how much they've had.
How a bottle compares to the guidelines
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guideline for healthy adults is to drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 on any one day, to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol.
Put a bottle of wine next to that:
- One 750ml bottle ≈ 8 standard drinks — roughly double the recommended daily maximum of 4.
- That single bottle is about 80% of the entire weekly limit of 10.
- Two bottles across a week already exceed the weekly guideline on their own.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation stresses that these are guidelines for reducing risk, not targets — and that the less you choose to drink, the lower your risk of alcohol-related harm over time.
Keeping track without doing sums in your head
The maths above is easy in theory, but nobody wants to run a calculation before every glass. The simplest habit is to know your pour: if you're using a 250ml glass with a 14% red, each one is close to three standard drinks, so a "quiet two glasses" is already near the daily guideline.
That's exactly what the Drink Buddy app handles for you. Log each glass, and it keeps a running tally of your standard drinks, estimates your blood alcohol concentration in real time, and shows a live sobriety timer counting down to zero — so a bottle never quietly turns into more than you planned.
Frequently asked questions
How many standard drinks are in a 750ml bottle of wine?
Roughly 7 to 8. At 13% ABV it's about 7.7; at 13.5% it's close to 8; and a strong red near 15% is almost 9 standard drinks.
How do you calculate standard drinks in wine?
Volume in litres × ABV percentage × 0.789. For a 750ml bottle at 13%: 0.75 × 13 × 0.789 = about 7.7 standard drinks.
How many standard drinks are in a glass of wine?
A 100ml standard-drink measure is about 1. A 150ml restaurant pour is around 1.5, and a generous 250ml home pour can be close to 2.8. Real pours are usually bigger than one standard drink.
Is a bottle of wine a night too much?
A bottle is about 7–8 standard drinks — roughly double the guideline daily maximum of 4, and around 80% of the weekly limit of 10. It's a large amount for your body to process in one sitting.
Does the label show standard drinks?
Yes. In Australia, all packaged alcoholic drinks must state the approximate number of standard drinks, so you can read the exact figure straight off your bottle or cask.