how much alcohol is in a whole bottle of wine

[AuroraMarie]

Ah, the age-old question, often pondered after a particularly "spirited" evening. Wondering just how much fun is packed into that bottle you're eyeing? Let's uncork the boozy mathematics.

The answer lies in that little percentage on the label called Alcohol By Volume, or ABV. This tells you what portion of the liquid in the bottle is pure alcohol. Most wine bottles are a standard 750ml, and the average wine clocks in around 12% to 13% ABV. Doing some quick, and possibly slightly blurry, math, a 750ml bottle of 13% ABV wine contains 97.5ml of pure alcohol. That's a considerable amount of giggle juice.

For those of us who prefer not to think in milliliters, there's a simpler way to frame it. That one bottle of wine is the equivalent of about five "standard drinks." It also contains roughly the same amount of alcohol as five standard 12-ounce beers. So, if you polished off the whole bottle, you didn't just have "a glass," you essentially had a five-course liquid dinner.

The exact amount will wiggle a bit depending on whether you've got a light white or a bold red, but now you know the general rule. A whole bottle is a party for five, even if you're the only one on the guest list.