How Many Grapes It Takes To Make Just One Bottle Of Wine
When someone uncorks a bottle of wine, many things might be on their mind: The immediate impression of the aroma, the body, the mouthfeel, and the finish, whether the wine is dry or sweet. They're swirling the wine and sniffing it, experiencing the complexities from beginning to end. For others, the wine goes from bottle to glass to mouth without too much lingering consideration beyond whether or not they like the taste. No matter where you find yourself on this oenophile spectrum, you have probably not spent much time thinking about the quantity of the fruit in your glass. Quality, sure — that's the primary rumination of the nose and the tongue when you have a glass of wine. Quantity, though, rarely gets a passing thought — until now.
There is a simplified answer to how many grapes go into a single bottle of wine. On average, a standard 750-milliliter bottle of wine requires about 600-800 grapes or around 2.75-3.3 pounds. In reality, though, the answer is far more complex — because many factors contribute to the number of grapes necessary to fill a bottle. Everything from the type of wine to the harvest conditions to the winemaking technique will affect the vine-to-vino quantity.
Take the type of wine and the circumstances into account
The first element to consider is the grape itself; some wine grapes will produce more juice than others (thus requiring a smaller number of grapes per bottle). Some grapes have thicker skin or are smaller and will render less liquid, while thin-skinned varieties will yield more. The conditions that these grapes grow in will also affect the juice production — if the grape is in lengthy periods of dry, hot weather, you'll get less juice out of it than those that experience lots of rain. And if it isn't growing in the soil where that variety thrives, you'll see a lesser juice yield.
Once the grapes are harvested, though, the technique used to make the wine also plays a part in the juice quantity. Free-run wine is produced from a method in which almost no pressure is applied to the grapes, and so requires more grapes than a hard-pressed method that squeezes juice out forcefully. Techniques like extended maceration, wherein grape skins and seeds stay intact longer, need more grapes for the intended qualities.
Dessert wines of certain styles use grape varieties and winemaking techniques that need larger grape quantities. Varieties like Tokaji aszú make wine from shriveled grapes and noble rot fungus.
What else is in that wine bottle?
Even though it seems 600-800 grapes would more than fill a standard bottle, a few other ingredients take up a little space in that wine. The most basic winemaking method relies entirely on grapes and the natural chemical reactions that cause its fermentation — the yeast that turns the juice into alcohol. If you don't intend to drink sustainable wine, modern vintners will turn to a few enhancements for flavor and texture.
Sulfites are often added to wine to preserve the grapes, and calcium carbonate will sometimes appear to minimize a wine's acidity. Added sugar increases the wine's alcohol content, and even elements that naturally occur in grapes, like tannins and yeast, will sometimes be added to wine for winemakers to have more control over the finished product. Although many of these extra ingredients will make their way into your bottle, those 600-800 grapes are still the star of the show.