How many calories are in a glass of Champagne and why Brut has fewer
A glass of Brut Champagne (125 ml, 12% alcohol) has about 83-89 kcal, and a whole 0.75 l bottle about 500-535 kcal. Over 90% of these calories come from alcohol, not sugar, so the difference between Brut and the sweeter Demi-Sec is only a dozen or so kilocalories per glass. Below is the calculation using the conversion factors from EU rules, and a table for each sweetness level.
How many calories are in a glass of Champagne
A glass of Brut Champagne (125 ml, 12% alcohol) has about 83-89 kcal, of which about 83 kcal come from the alcohol alone and at most 6 kcal from sugar.
The calories in Champagne come almost entirely from two sources: alcohol and sugar. The EU rules on food information to consumers (Regulation No 1169/2011, Annex XIV) set 7 kcal for each gram of alcohol and 4 kcal per gram of carbohydrate. So all you need to know is how much alcohol and sugar there is in the glass.
Alcohol: Champagne usually has 12-12.5% by volume; in our calculations we take 12%, the figure given by the Comité Champagne. In a 125 ml glass that is 15 ml of pure alcohol. A millilitre of ethanol weighs about 0.79 g; the US institute NIAAA converts a standard drink of 14 g of alcohol to 0.6 fluid ounces, or 17.7 ml, which gives exactly this density. So 15 ml is about 11.8 g of alcohol, and 11.8 g times 7 kcal gives about 83 kcal.
Sugar: Brut Champagne has less than 12 g of sugar per litre, so less than 1.5 g in a 125 ml glass. That is at most 6 kcal. In Brut Champagne, alcohol therefore accounts for over 90% of the calories.
Calories in Champagne by sugar content
The sweeter the Champagne, the more calories: from about 83 kcal in a glass of Brut Nature (pronounced broot na-TEWR) to over 108 kcal in a glass of Doux Champagne.
The term on the label tells you how much sugar is in the bottle. The thresholds are set by EU Regulation 2019/33, and the Comité Champagne gives them in grams per litre. In the table we calculate a 125 ml glass at 12% alcohol; differences between wines of the same category come from the actual amount of sugar the producer added within the range.
| Label term | Sugar (g/l) | Sugar in a 125 ml glass | Calories from sugar | Total in a 125 ml glass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brut Nature (pas dosé) | below 3, no added sugar | up to 0.4 g | up to 1.5 kcal | about 83-84 kcal |
| Extra Brut | 0-6 | up to 0.75 g | up to 3 kcal | about 83-86 kcal |
| Brut | below 12 | up to 1.5 g | up to 6 kcal | about 83-89 kcal |
| Extra Dry | 12-17 | 1,5-2,1 g | 6-8.5 kcal | about 89-91 kcal |
| Sec | 17-32 | 2,1-4 g | 8.5-16 kcal | about 91-99 kcal |
| Demi-Sec (pronounced duh-MEE SEK) | 32-50 | 4-6,25 g | 16-25 kcal | about 99-108 kcal |
| Doux | over 50 | over 6.25 g | over 25 kcal | over 108 kcal |
The calculation leaves out small amounts of other components of wine, such as organic acids, so the actual value may be slightly higher. For comparison, the UK's NHS states that a 175 ml glass of 12% wine has up to 158 kcal. Converted to 125 ml, that is up to about 113 kcal, with the upper limit applying to sweeter wines.
What exactly Brut, Extra Dry and Demi-Sec mean and how they taste is explained in the article Brut, Extra Dry, Demi-Sec: how much sugar is in Champagne.
How many calories are in a bottle of Champagne
A 0.75 l bottle of Brut Champagne has about 500-535 kcal, and a bottle of Demi-Sec about 595-650 kcal.
A 0.75 l bottle at 12% contains 90 ml of pure alcohol, or about 71 g, which gives about 497 kcal. Then there is the sugar: in Brut less than 9 g per bottle (up to 36 kcal), in Demi-Sec from 24 to 37.5 g (96-150 kcal). According to the Comité Champagne, the strength of Champagne varies by about 0.7 percentage points above or below 12%, so in practice a glass of Brut can have from about 78 to about 94 kcal.
| Serving | Brut (12%) | Demi-Sec (12%) |
|---|---|---|
| 100 ml | about 66-71 kcal | about 79-86 kcal |
| 125 ml glass | about 83-89 kcal | about 99-108 kcal |
| Small bottle 0.2 l | about 133-142 kcal | about 158-173 kcal |
| Half-bottle 0.375 l | about 249-267 kcal | about 297-323 kcal |
| 0.75 l bottle | about 497-533 kcal | about 593-647 kcal |
Why Brut has fewer calories than sweet Champagne
Brut has fewer calories because the producer adds less sugar to it at the last stage of production, called dosage.
All Champagnes go through two fermentations, in which the yeast consumes almost all the sugar from the grapes. The sweetness of the finished Champagne therefore comes mainly from the dosage: after the sediment is removed, a mixture of wine and sugar is added to the bottle. In Brut Champagne this is usually about 1 cl of the mixture per bottle. The whole process is described in the article how Champagne is made.
The difference in calories between Brut and Demi-Sec, however, is only a dozen or so kilocalories per glass. The number of glasses and the strength of the wine make a much bigger difference, because alcohol provides most of the energy. The NHS points out that a gram of alcohol has 7 kcal, almost as much as a gram of fat.
Champagne with the least sugar
If you want as little sugar as possible, look on the label for Brut Nature, pas dosé, dosage (pronounced doh-sahzh) zéro or Extra Brut. Ultra Brut from Laurent-Perrier (pronounced lor-ahn pe-ree-ay) is made with no added sugar; the house introduced it in 1981, harking back to a sugar-free Champagne from 1889. Excellence Extra Brut from Gosset (pronounced goh-SAY) has a low dosage, and the house does not carry out malolactic fermentation, so the wine stays crisp. We have collected more bottles like this in ranking of Extra Brut and Brut Nature Champagnes, and the category itself is explained in the article Extra Brut and Brut Nature.
At the other end of the scale are sweeter Champagnes, such as Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial (pronounced mo-et ay shon-don nek-tar am-pay-ree-al) in the Demi-Sec style. They have a dozen or so more kilocalories per glass, but go better with desserts; we write about them in the article sweet Champagne: Demi-Sec, Nectar and Ice. How much alcohol Champagne contains and what it depends on is explained in the article Champagne's alcohol content.
