Alcohol has long been an integrated and beloved part of our culture, whether you love it or hate it. It has served many purposes over the years, from disinfectant to fuel, but the most common use for alcohol is as a drink.
Given humanity’s long association with the stuff, we have come up with a variety of different alcoholic beverages to slake our thirst.
Of them, there are two that are associated with everyday drinking, beer and wine, with the latter being more of a dinner drink.
Wine is beloved by a lot of people and drunk as part of a dinner by many, given its unique flavor and how well it pairs with food, but if you were going to do a low-carb diet, could you continue to drink wine?
Or would you have to stop? Today, we seek to find this out.
What Is Wine?
Wine is an alcoholic drink that is made from the juice of fermented grapes. The way this is done is that the grapes are grown and picked once they are ripe, then they are crushed to create grape juice.
Without machines, this is a painstaking process, but it has to be done.
The juice is then placed into large vats and yeast is added to the juice. The yeast will feed on the sugars in the grapes, which in turn will ferment the juice and release carbon dioxide.
Over time, the juice will become alcoholic and turn into wine.
The wine then needs to age for between several months and several years, depending on the wine, to develop flavor and texture.
Once the wine has reached the desired flavor and texture, it will be bottled and sold on the market.
Wine is one of the oldest forms of alcoholic beverages, with the earliest traces of wine being discovered in Georgia dating back to 6000 BC, before it spread throughout the Mediterranean basin.
Over time, wine became an important commodity for all nations living along the shores of this sea, and it came to be one of the defining culinary features of the area.
Even today, many of the cultures of this area are the largest wine exporters and consumers, with even one of the largest religions in the world – Christianity – using wine regularly in its sermons and religious ceremonies.
How Many Carbs Are In Wine?
The answer to this question is not much, and almost none at all. If we take the two most commonly drunk kinds of wine – red and white – and use the two types of these wines that have the highest carbohydrates in them, we can see how few there are in general.
For red wine, the kind of wine with the highest carbohydrates is a Burgundy. This wine per one 5 fluid ounce serving (one glass) has about 5 grams of carbohydrates, or 2% of your daily intake.
For white wine, the kind of wine with the highest carbohydrates is a Riesling. This wine per one 5 fluid ounce serving (one glass) has about 5 grams of carbohydrates or 2% of your daily intake as well.
That really isn’t that much, and may make wine one of the friendliest drinks for those on a low-carb or keto diet.
While this is not true for all wines, as we are sure there are few out there that have a high carb rating, most wines are very low-carb and so one glass or two now and again shouldn’t hurt your diet.
The reason for the low level of carbs in good quality wines is that they are fermented with the yeast eating a lot of the sugars in the grapes.
However, this isn’t the case for low quality mass-produced wines that may be put out before the fermentation process is over or have carbs added to them.
This is also the case for fortified wines or dessert wines, as they are intended to be sweet and so will have more sugar in them naturally.
What Are The Best Low-Carb Wines?
If you are looking to drink some wine but are still a bit worried about the carb count, then don’t worry, as we have a selection of wines here that you can pick from to still be able to have a drink without messing up your diet.
White Wine
Luckily for most people, the standard white wines in the supermarket will be the best low-carb white wines as well. This is because they tend to be quite dry wines, which is exactly what you need to look for when you purchase a low-carb wine.
The absolute best white wine with the lowest carbs per glass is a Sauvignon Blanc. It has the least amount of sugars and carbohydrates in general, with only 3 grams of them per 5 fluid ounces.
After that, it is a Chardonnay, then Pinot Grigio, and then a Pinot Blanc, with all of these wines being under 4 grams of carbohydrates per 5 fluid ounces of wine.
Red Wine
Red wines tend to have more flavor and sweetness and therefore tend to have more carbs, but not much – at most 0.2 or 0.3 more on average than white wines.
Again, you can easily find these wines in your everyday supermarket, which is great.
The red wine with the lowest amount of carbs per glass is that of a Pinot Noir. This wine only has slightly more carbohydrates than a Sauvignon Blanc, with only 3.4 grams of carbs per 5 fluid ounces of wine.
After that, it is a Merlot, then a Cabernet Sauvignon, then a Syrah, with everything but the Syrah being under 4 grams of carbs per 5 fluid ounces and the Syrah being 4 grams of carbs per 5 fluid ounces.
You have probably noticed, but the drier the wine, the more likely it is to have less carbs per glass.
Conclusion
Wines are generally one of the most low-carb alcoholic drinks you can buy, and they are the perfect way to kick back on a low-carb diet.
Just remember not to drink too much, and your low-carb diet will be fine.
One of the most common things I talk to my clients about is calories, but so few of them actually know anything about them.
Calories is not a dirty word. If you remove emotion from it, it is simply a unit of energy.
We need calories to live and thrive, and knowing how many to consume is important to ensure that you’re living a healthy lifestyle.
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