Alcohol units still a mystery to wine drinkers

Three quarters of UK wine drinkers don’t know how many units of alcohol there are in a bottle of wine, says a new survey.

Only six per cent of consumers knew that a 750ml bottle with typically 12% abv wine contains around nine units of alcohol, according Wine Intelligence’s survey of 1,000 regular wine drinkers, though another 20 per cent answered either eight or 10 units and were, therefore, counted as correct.

Of greater concern in the climate of responsible drinking was that half those surveyed believed that a bottle of wine contains six units of alcohol or less. However, wine drinkers were better at correctly estimating alcohol units in other measures. For example, over 70 per cent correctly stated that a small glass (125ml) of wine contains 1.5 units.

However, with so many wines now reaching alcohol levels of 14% abv, it’s important to remember that any increase in the alcohol by volume increases the units per glass. So, for example, the same 125ml glass of 14% abv wine contains 1.8 units.